Arizona State swept its dual meets against Denver on Saturday.
Arizona State Press Release
TEMPE, Ariz. – The Sun Devils not only continued to win the majority of events but also improved significantly upon several season best times as the men cruised to a 196-99 victory and the women earned a hard-fought battle coming down to the wire, 152.5-135.5.
"It's exciting and that's what we train for, we train for those moments," associate head coach Ryan Mallam said of the women's relay finish. "We train for it to come down to that last relay, that last event, and we're all invested in the team's success so it was exciting."
The ASU men took an early lead and continued to build upon it throughout the meet while the women's decision came down to the final two events – the 400 IM and the 200 free relay.
In the 400 IM, Marlies Ross and Denver's Maddie Myers traded advantage at each turn and at the final touch, the result could not have been any closer as both women touched the wall at 4:17.75. Ross improved her time significantly from last weekend, nine seconds faster than a week ago.
Denver still within striking distance heading into the women's free relay, the Sun Devil A-squad comprised of Claire Fisch, Ingibjorg Jonsdottir, and captains Alysha Bush and Kat Simonovic, finished just under three seconds ahead of Denver's A-team to capture the overall victory.
"We really were getting each other going and we had a little meeting before the final relay because we knew it was so close," said Bush, one of two senior co-captains. "It's so different this year – we all have really great bonds and we want to swim for each other. I haven't seen cheering like that [from our team] in four years, so it's amazing."
Overall, the Sun Devils won 14 of 24 individual swim events (10 men, 4 women). In both the 1 mtr and 3 mtr dives, David Hoffer, Heikki Makikallio, and Cody Rankin went 1-2-3 for the men while Mara Aiacoboae finished first in both dives for the women.
Individually, Bush (50 free, 100 free) and Cameron Craig (100 free, 200 free) continued their dominant performances from last weekend, each winning multiple events for the Sun Devils.
Fourteen different Sun Devils also achieved NCAA B-standard times, including the entire top three in the men's 100 yard fly (Andrew Porter, Patrick Park, and Tadas Duskinas).
The Sun Devils improved upon the season's top times in every single event, most notably in the 1000 free as Kendall Dawson shaved 19 seconds off her team-leading time while Ben Olszewski took 20 seconds off.
Christian Lorenz also swam a five-second faster 200 breast (2:00.75) than his season fastest last weekend while in the 500 free, Dawson brought her time to under five minutes (4:55.76), nearly eight seconds faster, and Ben Olszewski swam six seconds faster in the same event.
Next weekend takes both teams to Southern California to face USC on Friday, Nov. 4 (2 p.m.) while the women will face UCLA on Saturday, Nov. 5 (11 a.m.).
Denver Press Release
TEMPE, Ariz. – The University of Denver men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams swam well on the road, but fell in both dual meets at Arizona State on Saturday afternoon at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Complex.
[30] Denver’s women (3-2) dropped the dual by a count of 152.5-135.5 to [40] Arizona State (3-0), while the [31] Denver men (0-1) fell to [37] Arizona State (3-0) by a score of 196-99.
“On the women’s side, I thought we raced pretty well. It was a close meet, and we left some points on the board. It might be a dual that got away from us, but I’m proud of how we fought,” head coach Brian Schrader said. “Our guys had a great day of racing today even though it didn’t show on the scoreboard. We had some of our best dual meet performances of all time, but credit Arizona State today, they came out to make a statement and swam really fast this afternoon.”
Junior Morgan McCormick (Golden, Colo.) continued her success in the backstroke on Saturday, taking the 100 and 200 yard back with a pair of NCAA B Standards at times of 54.78 and 1:57.46, respectively.
Junior Maddie Myers (Arvada, Colo.) earned an NCAA B Standard of her own in the 400 IM, touching the wall in a tie for first at 4:17.75, nearly 1.6 seconds ahead of the provisional time.
Denver swept the 1000 free events. Myers touched first in the women’s race at 10:05.75 and freshman Colin Gilbert (Kamloops, B.C.) won the men’s race at 9:12.84. Myers earned her second distance swim victory later in the afternoon in the 500 free, clocking in at 4:55.04. Gilbert would go on to finish second in the men’s race with a time of 4:34.50.
“Maddie Myers was an absolute warrior today,” Schrader said. “She stepped up when we needed her to against some great competition.”
Junior Anton Loncar (Hillsboro, Ore.) picked up an NCAA B Standard of his own in the 200 back with a time of 1:46.20, in addition to leading the Pioneers earlier in the meet in the 100 back with a time of 48.95. Both of Loncar’s times were good for second place finishes on Saturday.
Senior Amanda Sanders (Superior, Colo.) swept the two breaststroke events with an NCAA B Standard of 2:15.19 in the 200, several events after winning the 100 breast with a time of 1:03.10.
Junior Heidi Bradley (Victoria, B.C.) took both of the butterfly events with times of 55:87 and 2:03.14.
The Pioneers opened the meet with a win in the women’s 400 medley relay, as McCormick, Sanders, freshman Josie Valette (Boudler, Colo.) and senior Johanna Roas (Munich, Germany) combined for a time of 3:43.52, winning the race by seven tenths.
“I’m very excited about our women’s 400 medley relay,” Schrader said. “I anticipate it being in the top 15 or 20 in the country once all the results are reported after this weekend.”
Senior Andrew Torres (Arvada, Colo.) and Gilbert led Denver in the men’s 200 fly, finishing second and third with times of 1:49.67 and 1:50.88, respectively.
Torres’ classmate Kyle Robrock (Savage, Minn.) and freshman Sid Farber (Portland, Ore.) turned in strong showings in the 50 free, as Robrock finished a tenth behind ASU’s Tadas Duskinas for second, and Farber touched just 0.02 seconds after Robrock at 20.63.
Following Sanders win in the 200 breast, senior Tim Cottam (Sydney, Australia) led the Pioneers in the men’s event with a time of 2:01.17, good enough for a second place finish on Saturday.
To end the meet, Denver’s men’s 200 free relay finished at 1:20.60, 0.03 seconds behind the Arizona State relay for second. Farber, Cottam, Robrock and junior Ray Bornman (Mackay, Queensland) swam the A-relay for the Pioneers on Saturday.
“I expect our men’s 200 free relay to be in or near the top-10 in the country,” Schrader said. “We had a great week of training this week and we swam like it out there today, and this relay was a great way to wrap-up our dual meets down here.”
In diving, Sammy Walker (Los Gatos, Calif.) scored 249.23 points on the one meter board and 210 on the three meter.
Men’s diver Ryan Reed (Springdale, Ark.) led Denver on both boards with scores of 266.78 on the one meter board and 268.35 at three meters.
