{"id":467467,"date":"2021-03-27T16:12:04","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T23:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=467467"},"modified":"2021-03-28T07:40:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T14:40:11","slug":"max-mchugh-upsets-reece-whitley-in-200-breast-to-sweep-ncaa-breaststroke-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/max-mchugh-upsets-reece-whitley-in-200-breast-to-sweep-ncaa-breaststroke-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Max McHugh Upsets Reece Whitley in 200 Distance to Sweep NCAA Breaststroke Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max McHugh Upsets Reece Whitley in 200 Distance to Sweep NCAA Breaststroke Titles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Minnesota’s\u00a0Max McHugh\u00a0<\/strong>took down\u00a0Cal’s\u00a0Reece Whitley\u00a0<\/strong>in the finals of the 200 breaststroke at the NCAAs in Greensboro when a lot of people were expecting Whitley to challenge the American record of 1:47.91 set by\u00a0Will Licon\u00a0<\/strong>back in 2017. Whitley and McHugh were stroke for stroke for the first 150 with McHugh leading at the 100 at 52.16 to Whitley’s 52.22, while Whitley took the lead at the 150 1:20.28 to McHugh’s 1:20.31.<\/p>\n

But it was the Minnesota Gopher, who won Minnesota’s first NCAA men’s swimming title since 1964 last night in the 100 breast, who stayed controlled on the final 50, splitting a 28.71 on the final 50 to Whitley’s 29.26 to win his second NCAA title of the weekend.<\/p>\n

Max McHugh and Reece Whitley have a storied rivalry, trading the national high school record in the 100 breaststroke in 2018, with McHugh breaking Whitley’s record<\/a> before the latter got it back<\/a> to win the high school swimmer of the year awarded by this publication. Their rivalry was disrupted by the pandemic last year but they will go at it one more year in 2022.<\/p>\n

Cal’s\u00a0Hugo Gonzalez <\/strong>placed third for the Bears at 1:51.20 to close the gap behind Texas to 21 points as the Longhorns had\u00a0Caspar Corbeau\u00a0<\/strong>finish fourth at 1:51.43.<\/p>\n

Stanford’s Daniel Roy <\/strong>(1:51.82) finished fifth as the junior should factor into the Olympic Trials race this summer in long course.<\/p>\n

Virginia Tech’s\u00a0Charles Coll Marti\u00a0<\/strong>(1:51.84), Virginia’s\u00a0Keefer Barnum <\/strong>(1:52.23) and Georgia Tech’s Caio Pumputis <\/strong>(1:52.27) also swam in the championship final.<\/p>\n

This is Minnesota’s first ever NCAA title in the 200 breaststroke and the first for the Big Ten since Indiana’s\u00a0Ian Finnerty\u00a0<\/strong>won in 2018 as Max McHugh will be returning for his senior season.<\/p>\n

All-Time Rankings:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 1:47.91,\u00a0Will Licon<\/strong>, Texas, 2017<\/li>\n
  2. 1:48.53,\u00a0Reece Whitley<\/strong>, California, 2020<\/li>\n
  3. 1:48.66,\u00a0Kevin Cordes<\/strong>, Arizona, 2014<\/li>\n
  4. 1:48.70,\u00a0Andrew Seliskar<\/strong>, California, 2019<\/li>\n
  5. 1:49.02,\u00a0Max McHugh<\/strong>, Minnesota, 2021<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. 1:49.31,\u00a0Cody Miller<\/strong>, Indiana, 2017<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n