Under-the-Radar Performance of the Year: Tess Howley Lit Up 200 Butterfly at World University Games
The final of the women’s 200-meter butterfly at the World University Games produced a dominant showing by American Tess Howley. A standout at the University of Virginia, Howley easily captured the gold medal, as her time of 2:05.69 was good for a two-plus second triumph over fellow American Lindsay Looney. Yet, the performance was only Howley’s second-best effort in a 24-hour timeframe.
A night earlier, while racing in the semifinals, Howley unleashed a time of 2:05.20 to surge into the upper echelon of the all-time rankings. Swimming World has selected the outing as its Under-the-Radar Female Performance of the Year. While scaring the 2:05 barrier, Howley opened with a split of 28.23 and turned at the midway point of the race in 59.83. She produced a third-lap split of 32.18 to hit the 150-meter mark in 1:32.01 and she came home with a closing length of 33.19.
A 20-year-old, Howley vaulted to 14th in the all-time rankings and she is now knocking on the door of sub-2:05 territory, which has been visited by only 12 women. More, Howley is the third-fastest American in history, trailing only Regan Smith (2:03.84) and Mary DeScenza (2:04.14), who was briefly the world-record holder during the 2009 World Championships.
Howley headed to the World University Games with an impressive resume. She was the seventh-place finisher in the 200 fly at the 2024 United States Olympic Trials, with her semifinal time of 2:08.79 her best performance of the meet. Meanwhile, she was the fourth-place finisher at the 2025 NCAA Championships, where she went 1:51.79 for All-American honors and helped Virginia claim its fifth consecutive team title.
But the WUGs saw Howley surge to another level, as her pair of 2:05 markers were complemented by a 2:06.75 swim in the preliminaries. What’s next? Howley will represent the United States at next summer’s Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, where she’ll chase something in the 2:04 range.
