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Senior Ally McHugh became Penn State's first national champion in women's swimming and diving, as she dominated the competition in the 1,650-yard freestyle event March 23 at the NCAA championships in Austin, Texas. McHugh completed the race in 15 min- utes, 39.22 seconds, nearly five seconds ahead of her closest competition. The swim also shaved about eight seconds off her winning time at the Big Ten championships in February. "I'm so proud to have that be my last college race," McHugh told ESPN following her vic- tory. "To be here and experience this as my last college meet is just amazing. I'm re- ally happy and can't ask for anything more." A year ago, the Philadelphia native fin- ished second at NCAAs, trailing Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky of Stanford. McHugh's time in that race was a Penn State-record 15:36.27. McHugh is now a two-time All-Amer- ican in the 1,650 freestyle and a two- time honorable mention All-American in the 400 IM. The day before winning the 1,650-yard title, she placed 10th in the 400, finishing in a school-record 4:05.78, about two seconds better than the season-best time she turned in at the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in Novem- ber. Head coach Tim Murphy highlighted McHugh's discipline and perseverance – not just at the recent NCAA meet, but throughout her career. "It's not an easy thing to do," Murphy said. "She was patient in the beginning, but she was not going to give up and just kept getting faster. These things don't just happen. She earned that and she de- served that. She had a lot of dedication and commitment, which she was able to put all together and stand on that podium representing Penn State." Murphy also praised assistant coaches Steve Barnes and Josh Graham for helping McHugh reach the top of the podium. Barnes and Graham "deserve a tremen- dous amount of credit for getting her pre- pared," he said. "But it was all Ally – she did the work and was prepared." "She is a good student," he added, "a good teammate, and now, a national champion." Earlier in the day, junior Maddie Hart took home 25th place in the 200 butterfly after completing the preliminary race with a time of 1:56.26. Hart was making her first appearance at the NCAA cham- pionships. "Maddie had a great swim this morn- ing," Murphy said. "She has learned a lot and really put herself out there. She is al- ready hungry to come back next year." As a team, Penn State tied Northwest- ern for 27th place at the championships. McHugh put all 27 team points on the board for the Nittany Lions, earning 20 of those points in the 1,650 free alone. ■ WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING McHugh wins national title in final race for PSU Penn State's Karol Metryka claimed his 8rst national saber title, defeating Princeton's Daniel Kwak, 15-12, in the 8nal round of the NCAA champi- onships at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland. A senior from Linden, N.J., Me- tryka only lost four bouts throughout the competition, finishing with a record of 19-4 to become the seventh Penn State fencer ever to win a na- tional title in men's saber. Team- mate Marcel Dolegiewicz finished 10th in the event with a 12-11 record. Other top 8nishers on the men's side for Penn State were Sebastiano Bicego and Anton Piskovatskov, who were 89h in the foil and epee, re- spectively. Bicego and Piskovatskov joined Metryka in earning All-Amer- ica honors. In the women's competition, four Nittany Lion fencers earned All- America notice: Zara Moss (second in saber), Karen Chang (89h in saber), Anastasia Kalonji (seventh in epee) and Lodovica Bicego (seventh in foil). Moss reached the women's saber 8nal for the second consecutive year, falling to Karolina Cieslar of St. John's, 15-13. A sophomore from Cranberry Township, Pa., Moss 8nished the tournament with a record of 16-7 and the third-highest indicator among women's saber fencers with plus-37. Chang, a senior from Hong Kong, narrowly missed an opportunity to fence in the semi8nals a9er going 16- 7. The seven All-America perform- ances li9ed Penn State to a second- place 8nish in the team standings. The Nittany Lions concluded the meet with 166 points, just behind Columbia with 178. ■ McHUGH METRYKA F E N C I N G Metryka claims NCAA saber championship

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