Max McHugh Drops 1:54-Low 200 Breaststroke in Prelims at YNats

2018 YMCA SHORT COURSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• April 3rd-7th, 2018
• Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina
• Meet Central
• Live Stream (Finals)
• Meet Results
• Psych Sheet

Door County YMCA swimmer Max McHugh, who will swim in the fall at the University of Minnesota, has dropped a 1:54.23 Meet Record in the 200 yard breaststroke in prelims on Wednesday at the 2018 YMCA Short Course National Championships. That breaks his old Meet Record of 1:55.46, and improves upon his prior personal best of 1:55.38 that he swam at the Wisconsin Senior Champs in March of 2017.

A true 3-distance breaststroker, McHugh now ranks 10th all-time in the 17-18 age group in the 200 yard breaststroke; he already ranks 4th all-time in the 100 breaststroke (51.62), where he’ll be the top seed later in the meet.

McHugh’s speed has developed significantly in the last year, and that’s what showed in Wednesday’s prelims swim. He was out in 54.17 and eventually closed in the same final-50 split as he did at last year’s state meet.

Other Noteworthy Morning Swims

• 16-year old Grace Kayal of the Red Bank YMCA in New Jersey topped the girls’ 200 back prelims in 1:56.79. Along with teammate Marie Schobel, Kayal led a 1-3 qualifying for Red Bank. Paige Hetrick from the Bradford YMCA qualified 2nd in 1:57.10.
• Brendan Burns from the Upper Main Line Y in Pennsylvania qualified 1st in the 200 back in 1:45.30 – over a second short of his lifetime best. He’s the top seed in all 4 individual events he’s swimming this weekend, including the 100 fly, where he also qualified 1st (also short of a best time) in 48.40. Burns keeps his lane-4-streak alive.
• Megan Glass qualified 1st in the 100 fly in 54.26 – she’s been 53.5. Annika McEnroe was a bigger surprise to qualify 2nd in 54.43 – her best time coming into the meet was just 56.83.
• Charity Pittard from Boise, Idaho led a group of huge drops to take the top 3 seeds in the 100 breaststroke. She improved her seed by 3.1 seconds, Hannah Ownbey improved her seed by 3.16 seconds (2:13.85), and Annika McEnroe had another big drop of 6.8 seconds to qualify 3rd in 2:14.73.
• Somerset Hills qualified first in the men’s 400 free relay in 3:00.81. That included a 43.25 anchor from Jack Alexy. He was the only sub-44 split in prelims, and one of just 3 sub-45 splits.