Max McHugh

Maxwell McHugh (born 1999) is an American competitive swimmer specializing in breaststroke events.

In 2021, he won two NCAA Division I titles at the year's championships, one in the 100 yard breaststroke and one in the 200 yard breaststroke.

At the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships, he won the NCAA title in the 100 yard breaststroke.

In 2023, he won a third-consecutive title in the 100 yard breaststroke at the NCAA Division I Championships for the year.

He competed collegiately for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

McHugh graduated from Sevastopol High School in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin where he competed scholastically as part of the high school team and set a National Age Group record, overall national high school record, and national public high school record in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 51.62 seconds at the 2018 Wisconsin State High School Championships.

In 2018, he started attending the University of Minnesota where he majored in psychology and competed collegiately as part of the Minnesota Golden Gophers swim team.

He won the final with a time of 50.67 seconds, breaking the pool record of 51.54 seconds set by Ian Finnerty of the Indiana Hoosiers in 2018.

He swam a 1:52.92 in the prelims heats of the 200 yard breaststroke on the fourth day, qualifying ranked first for the final with a time 0.24 seconds ahead of second-ranked swimmer Josh Matheny of the Indiana Hoosiers.

In the summer of 2019, he was a survivor in a drive-by shooting, receiving a bullet to his right leg and recovering from the wound to return and continue competing collegiately.

McHugh has an older brother, Conner McHugh, who is also a competitive swimmer specializing in breaststroke events and who swam collegiately for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

In his freshman (first) year, McHugh won the silver medal in the 100 yard breaststroke (51.08 seconds) and the 200 yard breaststroke (1:52.40), a bronze medal in the 4×100 yard medley relay (3:05.46), placed fifth in the 4×50 yard medley relay (1:24.62), and thirtieth in the 200 yard individual medley with a 1:48.25 at the 2019 Big Ten Conference Championships.

Following his performances, he was named the 2019 Big Ten Conference men's freshman swimmer of the year.

Later in March, McHugh won the bronze medal in the 100 yard breaststroke at the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin, Texas with a time of 50.52 seconds in the final after swimming a personal best time of 50.30 seconds in the prelims heats.

For the 200 yard breaststroke, he won the silver medal in 1:49.41, finishing 0.71 seconds behind the first-place finisher in the event Andrew Seliskar of the California Golden Bears.

In the 4×100 yard medley relay, he helped place tenth in a time of 3:04.70.

For the 4×50 yard medley relay, he split a 23.01 for the breaststroke leg of the relay to help place seventeenth with a time of 1:24.85.

The following year, McHugh competed at the 2020 Big Ten Conference Championships in February in Bloomington, Indiana, winning the gold medal in the 100 yard breaststroke with a pool record time of 50.67 seconds and becoming the most recent male Minnesota Golden Gopher winner in the event at a Big Ten Championships since 2009.

He also won the bronze medal in the 200 yard breaststroke, where he finished in 1:51.80 in the final.

For his other events, he placed fourth in the 4×100 yard medley relay in 3:07.19, splitting a 50.77 for the breaststroke leg, placed seventh in the 4×50 yard medley relay in 1:25.39, splitting a 22.99 for the breaststroke leg, and placed fortieth in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 20.39 seconds.

By the end of the NCAA Division I conference championships, Big Ten and other conference championships, his time of 50.67 ranked as fastest 100 yard breaststroke time heading into the 2020 NCAA Division I Championships.

However, he was unable to compete at the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships as they were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Competing at the 2021 Big Ten Conference Championships in March 2021 in Columbus, Ohio, McHugh split a 22.40 for the breaststroke leg of the 4×50 yard medley relay, which was the fastest 50 yard breaststroke relay split in the history of the NCAA and contributed to an eighth-place finish in 1:25.40.

He also won the conference title each in the 100 yard breaststroke (50.59 seconds) and the 200 yard breaststroke (1:50.93), placed sixth in the 4×100 yard medley relay (3:06.96, split of 50.09 for the breaststroke portion), eighth in the 4×50 yard freestyle relay (1:18.55, split of 19.63 for the third leg), eighth in the 4×100 yard freestyle relay (2:54.37, split of 43.71 for the third leg), and twenty-ninth in the 50 yard freestyle with a personal best time of 20.16 seconds.

Later in the month, McHugh won the NCAA title in the 100 yard breaststroke at the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships with a personal best time of 50.18 seconds and became the first Minnesota Golden Gopher since 1964 to win an individual NCAA title.

He also won the NCAA title in the 200 yard breaststroke where he swam a personal best time of 1:49.02 to achieve the first NCAA men's title in the event for the University of Minnesota.

His performances earned him the Big Ten Conference honor of "Swimmer of the Year".

At the 2020 US Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, and postponed to June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, McHugh swam a 59.93 in the prelims heats of the 100 meter breaststroke and qualified for the semifinals ranking fourth.

In the semifinals later the same day, he lowered his time to a 59.68 and advanced ranking fifth to the final the following day.

His times from the prelims and semifinals were both personal best times.

For the final of the 100 meter breaststroke the next day, he tied for seventh-place with a time of 1:00.56.

Two days later he competed in the prelims heats of the 200 meter breaststroke where he placed 21st overall with a time of 2:13.97.

For the 2021 year, his time of 59.68 seconds ranked him in the top 30 performers in the long course 100 meter breaststroke.

Later in the summer, in August at the 2021 Minnesota Senior State Championship, he won the 100 meter breaststroke with a personal best time of 59.57 seconds and the 200 meter breaststroke with a personal best time of 2:12.61 as well as swimming a personal best time of 27.25 seconds in a timed final for the 50 meter breaststroke.

McHugh earned the honor of being team captain for his senior year competing with the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

In a meet against three other colleges in January 2022, McHugh won the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 50.58 seconds, which ranked him first overall in the NCAA for the season.

In his first event of the 2022 Big Ten Conference Championships in February, the 4×50 yard medley relay, McHugh and his relay were disqualified in the final for more than one reaction time registering as negative in value, -0.01 seconds specifically.

The second day, he was declared a false start, a form of disqualification, in the prelims heats of the 50 yard freestyle and was disqualified in the 4×100 yard medley relay when a swimmer other than McHugh registered a negative reaction time, -0.10 seconds by the butterfly swimmer.

Pre-relay disqualification, he split a 50.51 for the breaststroke leg of the relay, which was the fastest breaststroke split out of all the finals relays.

On day three, he ranked third in the prelims heats of the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 52.06 seconds and advanced to the final.