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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.
It’s no secret that the University of Texas women have been on a tear as of late, as the Longhorns made numerous headlines two weeks ago when they handily beat NC State in back-to-back duals at home.
The team’s momentum carried into last weekend, facing off with SMU on Friday and then hosting TCU and Rice at The Sterkel Classic on Saturday.
Senior Kelly Pash was the big story as she blasted her way to a time of 1:51.45 in the women’s 200 butterfly, ranking second in the NCAA this season behind teammate Emma Sticklen, but another swim that really stood out was the performance from sophomore Abby Pfeifer in the 1650 freestyle.
Pfeifer, an Austin native who transferred to join the Longhorns prior to last season after completing one year at Arkansas, lowered her best time down from 16:37.19 (December 2021) to 16:07.14 at the event, marking a massive 30-second drop.
In addition to the significant personal improvement, Pfeifer’s performance also puts her in a great position to earn an invite to the NCAA Championships this season—the cutline was 16:16.47 in 2022—something she missed out on last season.
Pfeifer has been on a rapid improvement curve over the last few months. She brought her 500 free PB down from 4:49.33 to 4:47.61 at the Minnesota Invite in December, and then two weeks ago against NC State, she clocked 4:44.55.
One day later in the 1000 free, she swam to a time of 9:43.18, marking her fastest swim by more than 13 seconds.
The day prior to her breakthrough swim in the mile, Pfeifer dropped nearly four seconds in the 200 fly, getting down to 2:03.59.
Now ranking eighth in the country in the 1650, Pfeifer has gone from missing NCAA qualification last season to being a potential scorer this year, as it took 16:06.12 to earn a top-16 finish in 2022.
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