Maggie Mac Neil is winding down her collegiate swimming career doing much more than winning races.
On Saturday, the Canadian Olympic champion delivered another star performance for Louisiana State University, helping the Tigers to a record fifth gold medal at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships in College Station, Texas.
Mac Neil played a major role in LSU winning the 400-yard (366-metre) freestyle relay with a 100 (91.4m) split of 45.26 seconds, the fastest in NCAA history and eclipsing Simone Manuel’s 45.45 effort for Stanford at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
It marked the Tigers’ second relay victory of the week after not winning a SEC relay title since 1986, With eight medals overall, the team finished fifth, its highest since the 2014-15 season.
Mac Neil piled up 96 points through the event to become LSU’s first recipient of the Commissioner’s Trophy since 1997. The native of London, Ont., also was named female swimmer of the meet.
The 22-year-old and her teammates will compete at the March 15-18 NCAA Championships at the University of Tennessee. Mac Neil was a two-time NCAA champion with the Michigan Wolverines.
She joined the Baton Rouge school this season, reuniting with LSU head coach Rick Bishop, her primary coach for three seasons at Michigan.
