Arizona State vs. USC
- November 1st, 2019
- Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, Tempe, Arizona
- Full Meet Results
- Final Team Scores:
- Men: Arizona State 184-USC 109 (exhibition swims in last individual event and last relay event limited scoring margin)
- Women: USC 184-Arizona State 113
A pair of lopsided team battles highlighted Friday’s Arizona State vs. USC dual meet, with the Arizona State men winning handily 184-109 and the USC women taking victory by almost the same score, in reverse, 184-113.
For the Arizona State men, this was their first home dual meet win over USC since 2003; and for the USC women, this was a 12th-straight win in the series, dating back to their last loss in late 2007. Between the two meets, the event wins were split evenly, 14 and 14.
Arizona State got big momentum from senior distance swimmer Ben Olszewski, who twice upset the defending Pac-12 champion in the 500 free Victor Johansson. Johansson was beset by injuries last year as a freshman but is now by all indications healthy, and Olszewski beat him first in the 1000 free (9:10.91-9:11.20) and then later in the 500 free in 4:31.49, with Johansson finishing just 7th in that race in 4:41.69.
The Sun Devils swept the day’s distance events, with junior Emma Nordin (9:58.50/4:49.87) sweeping the women’s 1000 and 500 yard frees in her only two swims of the day.
Continuing on the men’s side, the deep Arizona State 200 free group did damage early in the meet as well. Led by freshman Jack Dolan, and followed by sophomores Cody Bybee and Liam Bresette, Arizona State went 1-2-3 (and tied for 4th, thanks to another freshman Julian Hill) in that event. Dolan came away with the win in 1:37.54, and the others all clocked 1:39s.
Alexei Sancov was the standout for the USC men. He was responsible for the Trojan’s only wins of the day on the men’s side when he swept the butterfly races. First he won the 200 fly in 1:48.11, just edging-out Arizona State freshman Alexander Colson (1:48.29). He then won a little more comfortably in the 100 fly in 48.07. The 100 fly was a season-best for Sancov, though he was over a second faster in the 200 fly in early October.
In the women’s race, 3 USC Trojans logged double wins, led by defending NCAA butterfly champion and NCAA Record holder Louise Hansson. Hansson raced, and won, her best event, the 100 fly, in 53.24. That’s her first swim in that event this season, and her first marker as she chases an NCAA title defense against the hot-handed Maggie MacNeil of Michigan, among others. Hansson also won the 100 back in 54.46.
The other double winners for the USC women were junior Marta Ciesla, who won the 50 free (22.90) and 100 free (50.21); while sophomore breaststroker Isa Odgers won the 200 breast (2:13.00) and 400 IM (4:22.06). Odgers has not lost a 200 breaststroke race yet this season.
The Arizona State women picked up a pair of event wins in the first half of the meet when senior Silja Kanasakoski won the 100 breast in 1:02.10 (ahead of the aforementioned Odgers, who was 2nd in 1:02.66); and in the very next event, freshman Lindsay Looney won the 200 fly in 1:59.62. That time almost exactly matches what Looney swam on a similar timing last season when she was still a senior in high school. After Nordin’s early win in the 1000 free, it looked like the Sun Devils could keep the meet close, but Nordin’s 500 free win was the only victory they earned in the last two-thirds of the meet as USC rolled.
I wonder if the school has anything to do it. ASU is a big party school and I wonder how many swimmers are sucked into that.
It’s weird to me that Bowman hasn’t been more succesful.
Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but in the US the program seems to be more important than the coach. In Australia if a coach like Bowman moved to any program it would be loaded with elite talent in months.
He’s got the recruiting down, he’s just not getting the improvement once he’s their coach
Their best year at ncaas was one of Bowman’s first years there with mostly former regime recruits. Now that whole team is his recruits, they were 20th last year?!?!?
Is this accurate? I hear everyone say this but I haven’t seen the statistics
this is responding to pvsfree’s post
Grant House has done well under him, but not everyone works like Phelps. What worked for the GOAT won’t work for the common National Level athlete.
I think it is his personality.
He isn’t a sprint coach. He has had some coaching turnover and they have done poorly at ncaas. The Mens roster looks good this year so let’s see what happens in March
Halloway of NCState isn’t a sprint coach either….he is a backstroke and middle distance coach. But they don’t seem to have a sprinting/development problem either 🤔
Can’t coach SCY. Phelps, Kalisz, Schimitty all sucked, comparatively, SCY compared to LCM.
JRED – I’m sure you’re right about being loaded with elite talent within months, but it would likely be de-loaded a few months after that.
He had a pretty loaded group after London and the only ones who stuck around were Phelps and Schmitt. His training style only seems to work for a select few (he basically trained the speed right out of Yannick Agnel, one of the most talented freestylers of all time), and from the bits you hear about him from other people it seems that he is extremely hard to get along with.
That’s not to say he’s a terrible coach, but I can state definitively that there is much more stopping him from assembling an unstoppable… Read more »
With the Agnel topic, is there any thoughts on him over training? The Dwyer doping did bring up after effects of over training.
IIRC, that was one of the things Agnel brought up when asked about his time training in the US. It was all grinding and not enough recovery, so the quality went down and he got slower.
is maggie aroesty injured? she hasn’t swum in a dual meet yet
No offense to ASU but USC is bad!
If you have to preface the comment with “No offense”…its likely offensive.
Sometimes I agree but I was just saying not taking anything from ASU win…..
Both men’s teams will be lucky to be top 20 come March.
I disagree if USC and ASU combine their best swimmers and divers they can finish in the top 20.
No offense to you but USC is not bad, they are terrible.
some teams taper for november dual meets, others do not