With swimmers in the midst of an intense winter training block in early January, it’s almost unheard of to swim a best time, but that is exactly what Tennessee junior Sam McHugh did this week in the Vols dual meet against South Carolina.
Tennessee won both the men’s and women’s meets, and McHugh recorded three wins himself in the 200 fly (1:47.99), 200 IM (1:48.68), and 1,650 free (14:56.27). That mile time is a personal best for McHugh and is the first time that he has swum it in collegiate competition. His previous best time was a 15:50.28 from NCSA Juniors way back in 2011.
McHugh is a distance based swimmer, specializing in the 200 butterfly, 200 IM, and 400 IM, where he finished seventh in 3:41.35 at NCAA’s last spring. The junior also competed in the 500 free his freshman year at NCAA’s, finishing 29th. His mile time from this weekend puts him 13th in the country and gives the junior another potential scoring event for NCAA’s at the end of the year. Notably, McHugh beat the runner-up from NCAA’s, South Carolina’s Akaram Mahmoud, who is also the fastest returning swimmer in the event with the graduation of Penn’s Chris Swanson.
Congratulations Sam McHugh on earning Swimming World’s Performance of the Week!
Special Thanks to LumaLanes for sponsoring Swimming World’s Performance of the Week.
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