The Arizona State men and women hosted their first competition of the year on Friday, competing against the Denver Pioneers in an unscored short course meters dual meet highlighted by a number of unique events. The two squads were joined on Saturday by UNLV to truly kick things off today in a standard, scored, double-dual meet.
Although the Sun Devils grabbed a combined 16 first-place finishes of the 28 heats, this would have been a pretty tightly contested meet on both sides had it been scored out, with Denver showing superior depth across a number of events, particularly on the men’s side.
2012 NCAA All-American Alex Coci showed some versatility in this meet for the Sun Devils, swimming on both victorious men’s relays, winning the 50 meter butterfly, and jumping all the way up to the 800 freestyle, where he finished second.
Also putting together strong meets for the Arizona State men were, sophomore Thibaut Capitaine, Barkley Perry, and All-American diver Riley McCormick. Capitaine took first in the 50 and 150 meter breaststrokes, touching in 28.79 and 1:40.08, respectively. Perry, a true freshman, also grabbed two first place finishes of his own in the 150 freestyle (1:22.06) and the 150 backstroke (1:29.48). McCormick expectedly crushed the competition in the 1m and 3m springboard events (he is a two-time Olympian, after all), including a score of 424.43 on the 3m board, over 112 points better than everyone else in the field.
On the women’s side, Arizona State got victories from Anna Olasz (800 free, 8:58.43), Juanita Barreto (150 free, 1:29.37), Lori Layne Kremer (150 fly, 1:39.64), Melanie Busch (50 free, 26.04), Tory Houston (150 breast, 1:53.25), and Tristin Baxter (400 free). Sophomore Morgan Weller and junior Hailey Casper took first in the women’s 1m and 3m springboards.
The Pioneer men put up a very good early season performance, highlighted by Dylan Bunch, who came away with wins in the 400 and 800 freestyles. Kyle Robrock (50 freestyle, 23.43) and Andrew Torres (150 butterfly, 1:29.95) also posted first place times for Denver.
Bridgette McNally was the lone woman to win multiple individual events, squeaking out victories in the 50 and 150 backstrokes with times of 29.61 and 1:37.34, and also taking part in the Pioneers’ winning 500 meter free relay. Maddie Eyolfson (50 breast, 33.57), Sam Corea (100 free, 56.89), and Drew Matthews (50 fly, 28.51) were the other Denver female event winners.
Ok, I must make the difference between the University of Arizona and Arizona State University. 🙂
Very weird distance with the 150!
Thibaut Capitaine is a French sophomore there. He’s a breaststroker. Best times of 53.59 in the 100 breast and 1.55.84 in the 200 breast at the 2013 Pac-12 championships.
I believed that Clément Mignon, a promising French sprinter, had signed with ASU but there’s no trace of him in the roster.