January 29, 2008

Looney, Nguyen awarded weekly honors for two-win week

FRESHMAN STEVEN NGUYEN

SMITHFIELD, RI -- After leading the women to a 126-74 win over UMass Dartmouth on Senior Night, Wed., Jan. 23 with a trio of first-place finishes and following it up another three wins in a 174-120 victory over Saint Michael's Saturday, sophomore women's swimming standout Jess Looney (Goffstown, NH) was named the Northeast-10 Conference Female Swimmer of the Week.

Looney swam away with top times in the 100-yard freestyle (57.25), the 50-yard free (26.50) and the 1000-yard free (11:23.24) Wednesday against UMass Dartmouth and followed up the effort Saturday with victories in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:32.52), the 100-yard backstroke (1:05.71) and the 400-yard IM (4:53.21).

This is the third time Looney, who has led her team to an 11-0 record so far this season, has won the Swimmer of the Week accolade in the 2007-08 campaign.

On the men's side, freshman Steven Nguyen (San Jose, Calif.) earned his fifth Male Freshman Swimmer of the Week honor after taking home five first-place finished in two dual-meet wins this past week.

Nguyen took away two top times in a 94-82 win over UMass Dartmouth Wednesday before taking a trio of wins -- in the 50-yard breaststroke (30.33), the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.39) and the 50-yard backstroke (37.84) -- in Saturday's 120-105 victory over Saint Michael's.