IU Swimmers Score Big at Phillips 66 National Championships
JULY, Â 28, 2022
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Competing as Indiana Swim Club, swimmers with ties to the IU swimming and diving program totaled the highest women’s, second-highest men’s, and highest combined point totals at the Phillips 66 National Championships this week in Irvine, California.
Hoosiers combined for five medals at the meet, including three individual national championships.
IU continued its tradition of breaststroke success as Mackenzie Looze and Josh Matheny each won national titles in the stroke. Looze captured the women’s 200-meter title Wednesday night, while Matheny won in the men’s 100-meter event on Friday. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Indiana swimmers have captured a world 200-meter title (Lilly King), a Big Ten 200-yard title (Brearna Crawford) and now two national championships. Noelle Peplowski finished fourth in the 200-meter event Wednesday as well.
Looze slashed over two seconds from her seed time to win the 200-meter breaststroke in 2:25.35. For Looze, this week was the continuation of a successful summer. In April, she reached the A final in all four races swam at the Phillips 66 International team trials, and earned top-five finishes in the 200 IM (2:13.28) and 400 IM (4:44.95). Earlier this month, Looze was selected to USA Swimming’s 2022 Duel in the Pool roster.
A junior national champion in the event in 2018, Matheny’s 100-meter victory was also a personal best at 59.44 after breaking a minute for the first time in his career during the prelim (59.68). Earlier this summer, Matheny was a top-10 finisher in all three breaststroke distances at trials. In his 2021-22 freshman season, he was a medalist in four of five events swam at the Big Ten Championships, and helped IU to a silver medal in the 400-yard medley relay at the national meet in March.
Former IU swimmer Zach Apple tied for a national title in the opening night on Tuesday, going 48.44 to touch simultaneously with Virginia’s Matt King. Later that evening, current IU freestyler Mariah Denigan won silver in the 800-meter freestyle, going 8:31.12 and finishing second only to Olympian Katie Ledecky. Denigan dropped 11 seconds from her time to capture the runner-up placement.
Tuesday’s silver was the first of two for Denigan, as she bookended her meet with another on Saturday night in the 1500-meter event as well (16:12.44). In between, Denigan also placed eighth in the 400 IM (4:45.54) and sixth in the 400 freestyle (4:12.53).
Scoring 36 points, Anna Peplowski contributed to the team’s finish with three A final swims. The younger Peplowski placed seventh in the 100-meter backstroke (1:00.94), 200-meter backstroke (2:11.56), and 200-meter freestyle (2:00.70).
Denigan, Anna Peplowski, and Matheny are all coming off their freshman seasons at IU.
