NCAA All-American Mackenzie Padington announced she will be transferring to NC State University next fall after spending two seasons at the University of Minnesota. Padington took an Olympic redshirt this season to try and make the Canadian Olympic team as she will be a junior next fall on an NC State team that could contend for a national title.
Padington finished third in the 500 and 1650 free at last year’s NCAAs for the University of Minnesota, swimming a 4:35.21 in the 500 and 15:47.16 in the 1650. She also finished 37th in the 200 free at 1:46.74.
Mackenzie Padington at Minnesota at last year’s NCAAs. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
As a freshman in 2018, Padington was actually more of a sprinter for the Gophers, finishing as high as 12th in the 200 free (1:44.37) and was 52nd in the 100 free (50.50) and 41st in the 500 (4:43.61).
Padington originally took an Olympic redshirt this year and then revealed that she wasn’t going to return to school at Minnesota and she would continue her schooling elsewhere.
The Canadian women’s Olympic Trials are just days after the conclusion of NCAA’s, beginning March 30 in Toronto. The native of Campbell River, British Columbia, has been training with the High Performance Program in Victoria, B.C. She competed for Canada in the 2019 World Championships, finishing 24th in the 400-meter freestyle and 18th in the 800 free. She finished 12th and 16th, respectively, in those events at the 2017 World Championships.
Mackenzie Padington will be joining a very strong NC State team that was recently ranked third in the latest CSCAA Division I poll. She will be able to join the distance group of Kate Moore, Kay Foley, Maddie Morello and Abby Kriegler.
Padington will be joining a Wolfpack squad with an incoming freshman class of:
- Abby Arens
- Ashley Cusano
- Abigail Doss
- McKaley Goldblum
- Yara Hierath
- Morgan Jones
- Katey Lewicki
- Abby Pilkenton
- Megan Pulley.
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