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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
The excitement surrounding the Arizona State men’s team continued to build last weekend as the Sun Devils handily swept Stanford and Cal and Leon Marchand exploded with some jaw-dropping performances.
Due to the men’s squad grabbing all of the headlines, the performances from the ASU women have largely flown under the radar, as the program continues to build momentum highlighted by a decisive win over Cal on Saturday after battling Stanford the day prior.
Leading the charge for the Sun Devil women has been Lindsay Looney, a redshirt junior who has absolutely been on fire this season.
Looney placed 10th in the 200 fly at the Women’s NCAA Championships last season, recording a personal best time of 1:53.25 in the consolation final after clocking 1:54.04 in the heats.
This season, the Denison, Texas native has been sub-1:54 in the event three times, including doing so on consecutive days last weekend in ASU’s dual meets with the Cardinal and Golden Bears.
Against Stanford, Looney went head-to-head with standout freshman Claire Curzan and came out on top, touching in 1:53.48 to top Curzan (1:54.05), having overtaken the U.S. Olympian on the last 50.
The time just missed Looney’s season-best of 1:53.42 from the Wolfpack Invite, which ranks her fourth in the NCAA this season, while it also stands as the fastest swim from a non-invite meet in 2022-23, moving ahead of Texas’ Dakota Luther, who clocked 1:53.83 against UVA in early November.
After also winning the 100 free against Stanford in a personal best time of 49.34, Looney reeled off three individual wins against Cal, claiming the 200 free in a new best time of 1:45.65, the 500 free (4:45.59), and hitting another sub-1:54 200 fly in 1:53.97.
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One notable difference in terms of splitting in the 200 fly this season for Looney has been an improved back half. She closed in 59.80 in the NCAA final last year, and last weekend, came home sub-59 in both of her swims despite the fact we’re still weeks away from the postseason (and taper time).
| 2022 NCAA Prelims | 2022 NCAA Final | 2022 Wolfpack Invite | 2023 v. Stanford | 2023 v. Cal |
| 25.51 | 25.13 | 25.52 | 26.06 | 26.00 |
| 54.22 (28.71) | 53.45 (28.32) | 54.07 (28.55) | 54.71 (28.65) | 55.06 (29.06) |
| 1:23.45 (29.23) | 1:22.93 (29.48) | 1:23.44 (29.37) | 1:24.12 (29.41) | 1:24.39 (29.33) |
| 1:54.04 (30.59) | 1:53.25 (30.32) | 1:53.42 (29.98) | 1:53.48 (29.36) | 1:53.97 (29.58) |
Looney’s short course swims dovetail with what we saw her do in the long course pool the weekend prior, as she dropped an in-season 2:08.81 in the 200 fly against Washington State.
ASU will close out its dual meet schedule next Saturday, Feb. 4, against in-state rival Arizona before tackling the Pac-12 Championships in late February and then NCAAs in mid-March.
Marchand has been the big story coming out of Tempe this season, and rightly so, but Looney is quietly establishing herself as an NCAA title contender and will be one to watch over the next seven weeks.
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Lindsey was amazing! Such a talented swimmer! So happy to see her getting recognized 🥰
What an impressive swim, but a 3:31 4 im happened. At a dual meet. Outside. Doesn’t even sound real. Dude could go 3:29 eventually which is just incomprehensible
Good choice. Lindsay is really coming on. She was second last summer at Nationals to Dakota, 2:07.02 to 2:07.25, and from that point Dakota went on to win the SCM world championship, in Australia, at 2:03.37.
Lindsay and Dakota, and whomever else may be up to their level at the time (A Walsh, Sticklen, Pash, Hook, Klinker, etc.) will have a really fun 200 Fly race to watch at NCAAs.
All those yoga moves ain’t for nothing