AUSTIN, Texas – Penn State senior captain Ally McHugh and junior Maddie Hart are set to represent the Nittany Lions in four total events at the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships hosted by the University of Texas in the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center Thursday, Mar. 21 through Saturday Mar. 23.
COVERAGE
Preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. each day with the finals following at 5 p.m. The Thursday evening finals will air on ESPN3 while the Friday and Saturday evening finals will be televised on ESPNU. The preliminaries will be streamed live and for free at TexasSports.com.
THE MEET
McHugh is making her third appearance in the NCAA Championship coming off a second-place finish in the mile last year. She is slated to compete in the 500 Freestyle (Thursday), 400 IM (Friday) and 1650 Freestyle (Saturday).
McHugh, a member of the U.S National Team, sits at second in the nation this season for her performance in the 1650 freestyle, as her season-best time of 15:41.36 is just one-hundredth of a second away from the nation's leader in the event, Hawaii's Phoebe Hines.
McHugh is a two-time Big Ten Champion in the event, first bringing home the gold with her 15:43.34 performance in 2018. She defended her title in February with a time of 15:47.18, setting a new pool record at Indiana.
McHugh sits at No. 23 in the nation for the 500 Free, setting her season-best time of 4.38.46 at the Tennessee Invitational. McHugh also captured a fourth-place finish in the event at the Big Ten Championships last month. She also holds a season-best time of 4:07.89 in the 400 IM placing her at 26th overall in the nation.
McHugh competed in the same three events during her past two trips to the championship. Her silver medal win last year marked a historic swim for the then junior completing the race in an impressive 15:36.27 seconds. She also earned Penn State's first first-team All-America finish since Alyson Ackman, Carolyn Fittin, Kaitlin Jones and Caitlyn Karr earned the honor in the 800 free relay in 2015.
The senior captain will be joined by junior Maddie Hart, marking her first appearance in the NCAA Championship. Hart will compete in the 100 butterfly. She earned the bid to the championship after her fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships. She ranks as 31st in the nation with a time of 52.09.
A total of 322 participants (281 swimmers and 41 divers) will compete in the championships. Swimmers qualified for the championships by meeting the established minimum time for the events in which they entered.
Thursday, Mar. 21
500 Freestyle
Friday, Mar. 22
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
Saturday, Mar. 23
1650 Freestyle
