Caroline McTaggart will not race this season, as the sprint freestyler from Maryland is not listed on the UCLA roster after being on it the last three seasons. She has been dealing with ankle complications that have required several surgeries dating back to summer 2016.
McTaggart suffered ankle ligament and cartilage damage in February of 2016 during a morning dryland run with the UCLA team. To address complications from the injury, she underwent surgeries in July of 2016, August of 2017, and most recently in July of 2018.
Despite her injury, McTaggart did push through to compete at the 2016 Pac-12 Championships and 2016 NCAA Championships. She was 18th in the 100 free and 21st in the 100 fly at the 2016 Pac-12 Champs, while she also anchored the Bruins’ 200 medley relay and led off their 400 free relay. She raced the 50/100 free and 100 fly at NCAAs, and swam on both 400 relays there, too.
She raced through the 2016-17 season after her first surgery, but did not compete at Pac-12s nor NCAAs in 2017. McTaggart was on the 2017-18 roster, but did not compete at all last season because of ongoing ankle issues.
McTaggart was a highly-touted recruit in the class of 2015, making SwimSwam’s top 20 rankings and coming in with sub-23 and sub-49 sprint free times, along with a 52.8 in the 100 fly.
So sad to hear this.