INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – James McChesney added another gem to his increasingly unprecedented sophomore season with a fourth-place finish in the 200 free at the NCAA Championships on Thursday night.

McChesney had already earned All-America honorable mention in the 50 free the night before, but the Lions' star took it up a notch with a dazzling performance. He finished in a blistering 1:37.40, only .05 seconds off the program record set by Stephen Tarnowski in 2014, and notched his first career first-team All-America citation.

McChesney's fourth-place performance is the highest individual placing by a TCNJ swimmer since James Shangle took third in the 100 breast and fourth in the 200 breast at the 2016 national championship meet.

McChesney blew away his previous personal best by nearly a second in prelims, and he needed every bit of it to qualify for the A-final. The sophomore's mark of 1:37.78, good for second in program history before his night swim, cleared the ninth-place finisher by .11 ticks and sent him into the premier finals heat with an opportunity to swim for a national championship.

Andrew Thompson just missed joining McChesney as a top-16 qualifier, edging his previous PR by .02 seconds with a 1:38.96. He finished 18^th, only .16 seconds out of 16^th place, with one of the seven fastest times in school history.

McChesney, Dixon Kahler, Thompson, and Matt Watts finished 18^th in the 200 free relay, posting a 1:21.93. They missed out on a spot in the consolation finals by less than half a second.

McChesney is back in the pool on Friday, joining Lukas Blach, Conrad Hoody, and Thompson for the 800 free relay.