Max McHugh Splits All-Time Fastest 50 Breaststroke at Big Ten Men’s Swimming Championships

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Minnesota junior Max McHugh threw down the fastest split ever in the 50 breaststroke on Tuesday at the Big Ten men’s swimming championships in Columbus, Ohio with a 22.40, lowering the fastest split of all-time that Carsten Vissering at 22.58 from NCAAs three years ago. McHugh swam breaststroke on Minnesota’s 200 medley relay team that finished eighth overall on Tuesday night as he was one of four swimmers to break 23 seconds in that relay.

Each relay is being swum with a clean lane of water in between so times are going to be faster due to the amount of clean water and lack of wash in the ten lanes. We’ve already seen the fastest 50 back split of all-time from Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil last week when she led off this same relay in a 23.02.

 8 Minnesota-MN  'A'             1:26.88    1:25.40         44  
     1) Sachtjen, Desmon J 20         2) r:0.23 McHugh, Maxwell 21    
     3) r:0.19 Neverman, Kaiser 18    4) r:0.31 Farrar, Lucas 20      
    r:+5.90  11.16        22.57 (22.57)
           32.54 (9.97)       44.97 (22.40)
           54.29 (9.32)     1:06.14 (21.17)
         1:15.25 (9.11)     1:25.40 (19.26)

This bodes well for McHugh, who had the nation’s fastest 100 breaststroke last season before the NCAA meet was cancelled. He was expected to not only challenge the 50-second barrier, but also the national title. Minnesota has not had an individual NCAA champion in men’s swimming since 1964.

Also in the race, Michigan’s William Chan became the fourth fastest relay splitter in the 50 breaststroke with a 22.67.

Fastest relay splits of all-time:

EVENT	NAME	TEAM	TIME	PLACE	DATE
50 Free	Caeleb Dressel	Florida	17.30	Minneapolis, MN	3/23/2018
100 Free	Caeleb Dressel	Florida	40.15p	Minneapolis, MN	3/24/2018
200 Free	Townley Haas	Texas	1:29.66	Austin, TX	3/27/2019
50 Back	Ryan Murphy	California	20.20	Atlanta, GA	3/25/2016
50 Breast	Max McHugh	Minnesota	22.40	Columbus, OH	3/02/2021
100 Breast	Kevin Cordes	Arizona	49.56	Indianapolis, IN	3/28/2013
50 Fly	Joseph Schooling	Texas	19.36	Atlanta, GA	3/25/2016
100 Fly	Joseph Schooling	Texas	43.34	Atlanta, GA	3/24/2016

Fastest relay splits 50 breast:

22.40, Max McHugh, Minnesota, 2021
22.58, Carsten Vissering, Southern Cal, 2018
22.64, Chuck Katis, California, 2015
22.67, William Chan, Michigan, 2021
22.69, Peter Stevens, Tennessee, 2016

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