Two-time NCAA champion at Michigan and recently-crowned Olympic gold medalist Maggie MacNeil has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal.
MacNeil, entered in the portal under her full name, Hannah Margaret McNair MacNeil, has had a standout three-year career thus far with the Wolverines.
The Canadian’s entry in the portal indicates her transfer would be in order to be a graduate student, and that she plans to graduate after the 2021-2022 academic year.
MacNeil confirmed the news to SwimSwam, adding that she will be returning to the Wolverines in the fall.
“I entered the portal for graduate school but plan on finishing my degree at Michigan,” she said, adding that she “would love to find a school with great swimming and academics” for grad school come September 2022.
If MacNeil were to transfer for only the 2022-23 season, she would only have one season left, the extra year granted to student-athletes after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the end of the 2019-20 season, and her scholarship would count against her new team’s total.
The 21-year-old was the NCAA champion this past season as a junior, winning titles in the women’s 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly, setting a new NCAA and U.S. Open Record in the latter.
Having had such immense success under Rick Bishop, an associate head coach at Michigan for the last eight seasons, the first school that comes to mind that MacNeil could potentially transfer to would be LSU, where Bishop was recently named head coach.
However, with the added wrinkle that MacNeil wouldn’t transfer until 2022-23, LSU is less of a slam-dunk than if she was planning to move schools in the upcoming season, though it’s certainly still in the play.
It’s also important to note that a student-athlete entering the portal doesn’t necessarily mean they will transfer to another school, it just alerts coaches that they are considering a move.
MacNeil is also a 19-time All-American, 14-time Big Ten champion, and was the 2021 CSCAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year.
On the international stage, MacNeil won Olympic gold just days ago in the women’s 100 butterfly, and added a silver medal for Canada in the women’s 400 freestyle relay.
MacNeil is also the reigning world champion in the women’s 100 butterfly, having won gold at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
Born in CHina but raised in London, Ontario, MacNeil is enrolled in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at Michigan.
Thank you.
Won the gold, got all the swim accolades she needs and now a possible education at a top notch Ivy League school. Why not have the best of both worlds, just me thinking ?
Can someone explain to me what it means to be an all American?
Maybe go to Oxford or Cambridge. For academics I would also suggest my alma mater, The London School of Economics but I don’t think we even have a swimming pool.
It is a award based of either place at ncaas or a achieving a time. Not sure which
Good question — how did she become a 19-time All American? You have to finish in the top 16 in an event at the NCAA championships. You are allowed to race up to 7 events at the championships (of which only 3 can be individual). So you can become a 7-time All-American in just one year, by swimming top 16 in 4 relays and 3 individual events. Maggie has competed in the NCAA championships for 3 years (2019-2021). If she swims through 2023, she could conceivably be a 33-time All-American.
So the short answer is that a lot of these All-American awards are for relay swims. Note also this past year they allowed for All-American status by meeting.a certain… Read more »
my money is on Virginia
How close is she to Catie Deloof and what is her primary degree track at Michigan?
Rice is the Harvard of the South!
Rice is a very good school. It’s one of many, many schools that claim to be the Harvard of the South. I think it’s likely that while all are very, very good schools, none probably can lay the claim to the prestige and history that Harvard has.
Also, she’s definitely not going to transfer to Rice. If she does, I commit to turning SwimSwam.com into a Rice swimming fansite for 3 days.
holding you to this
Depends what she wants to study. Could be a lot of southern schools and Harvard is certainly not the best for many graduate academic programs.
You’re doing it wrong. Say you’ll eat rice!
Just pick either UT – Texas or Toronto!
Go to the Harvard of the south – LSU
Harvard of the south is duke
Vanderbilt*