MORGANTOWN – Despite being the only member of the boys University swimming team to make a championship final, UHS senior Frankie McCutchan made a lot of noise in the pool on Friday at Mylan Park Aquatic Center.
Competing in both the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle events, McCutchan would have two chances to earn another individual state title to his resume.
He qualified third in the preliminary round at a time of 1:47.66 and would improve that time to 1:45.16. His improvement was good enough to earn him third-overall in the state in the 200-yard freestyle.
Next was his premier event, the 500-yard, 20 lap, freestyle race. McCutchan was the state title winner in the same event his freshman year of 2018, and would look to repeat that feat after finishing first in prelims (4:54.06). Frankie came off the blocks determined to win another title and would do it in dramatic fashion. He would improve his prelim time by a whopping 14 seconds to win the state title in the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 4:40.34 a personal best and a UHS school record.
“The last four years swimming at University have been a journey as in any sport,” the UHS state champion said. “Training year in and year out both with UHS and in club over the summer and fall season, there are a lot of highs and lows as I’m sure there will be going forward when I’m swimming in college.”
McCutchan is a four-year member of the team and has been a consistent competitor on the highest-level in the state swimming scene. This year specifically has taught Frankie about adversity and really pushing through the hard times as he says the loss of his mother made the season difficult early-on.
“This year has definitely been a hard season for me, in August my mom passed away from Melanoma and I’ve had a lot of ups and downs this season with training and facing what I was going through,” said McCutchan about the death of his late mother.
As for his performance in his title-winning race, he says that setting a personal best is always a goal of his.
“I was expecting it, I always sort of expect myself to get a personal best,” he said. “I think it’s always good to have that mindset and have the expectation of doing your best.”
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