One of the Pac-12’s fiercest swimming rivalries took place this afternoon at Arizona State University’s Mona Plummer Aquatic Center in front of 2,000 attendees. The Sun Devils welcomed the University of Arizona Wildcats to Tempe, AZ for the last meet of their regular season to coincide with their Senior Day. With exhibition appearances by Michael Phelps, Allison Schmitt, and other Bob Bowman trainees, the Mona Plummer crowd witnessed the ASU men’s team defeat their in-state rival, 168 – 132, for the first time in fourteen years. The Sun Devil men also established five school records while capturing 11 out of 14 swim events. The Arizona Wildcat women bested ASU’s team by a wide margin in their contest, winning 12 out of 16 possible events for a 208 – 88 victory.
The Wildcat women eased into the competition with their winning 200 medley relays of 1:38.06 and 1:39.79 over the host team’s. For the men’s race, it was Richard Bohus, Christian Lorenz, Tadas Duskinas, and Patrick Park who broke the first record of the day for ASU with a fresh mark of 1:25.65. The Arizona ladies kept the momentum rolling with back-to-back sweeps in the 1000 and 200 freestyles. Bonnie Brandon’s 9:45.55 and Emma McCarthy’s 9:57.27 controlled first and second places in the distance event while Taylor Schick took first in the 200 free with a NCAA ‘B’ standard of 1:46.33. Schick finished second in the 100 free (49.54) to teammate Katrina Konopka’s 49.13 who also touched the wall first in the 100 back (53.38) for more Wildcat points.
Hungarian Olympian Bohus finished the day with ASU’s most wins, starting with his finish of 46.74 in the 100 back which lowered his own record from 47.16. The junior also claimed the 50 free over Arizona’s Renny Richmond (19.85) with a hit of 19.83 and his 43.09 had no issue clearing the field in the 100 free. Emma Schoettmer spearheaded a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 breast for Arizona. Her touch of 1:00.52 was followed into the wall by teammates Sara Bordendame (1:01.47) and Alexandra Martelle (1:02.51). Bohus’ record relay teammate Lorenz swept both of the breaststrokes while also setting a pair of ASU school records at 53.18 and 1:54.10.
The Sun Devils’ fifth record wasn’t actually broken, it was matched by its owner Barkley Perry’s swim of 1:42.50 in the men’s 200 back. Brandon got her second distance win for the Wildcat women in the 500 free (4:46.33) as teammates Annie Ochitwa and Mackenzie Rumwill posted their respective times of 51.78 and 53.90 for a 1-2 finish in the 100 fly. The Arizona women closed out their side of the competition with Konopka, Brandon, Ochitwa, and Schick registering a 1:29.35 for the win in the 200 free relay. Soon after the ASU relay of Park, Thomaz Martins, Duskinas, and Perry came together for even more points to seal their victory against the Wildcats, 1:19.18 versus 1:19.58.
Both teams will return to face each other and the rest of their conference rivals at the 2016 Pac-12 Championships in Federal Way, WA.
There is a continuing story here, but this is a shout out to the man behind the scenes that will earn much credit over time, and that is ASU Athletic Director, Ray Anderson. This guy really gets it – he is passionate for Olympic sports – and he gets it done in a big way. Sun Devil swimming fans , parents and alums say thank you to Ray Anderson as we watch this unfold.
ASUSwim U of A men were not rested only suited. Congrats to ASU for pulling of the victory. As I said in the previous statement we will see who the better team is at PAC-12s
I will be honest, both teams were suited , men’s team for ASU was on a full taper and all mean we’re shaved. Bowman wanted to make a statement and beat U of A. Whatever ASU did worked and is a grata confidence booster for them. However don’t count out Arizona just yeah let’s wait till PAC12s to see who the better team is.
ASU was only on a week of rest. That makes the meet pretty equal in terms of where both teams were at as the U of A men were also rested.
Electric environment yesterday at ASU. Regardless of the colors you wear, this is a great story and turnaround from the dreaded announcement of 2008. Still a long ways to go but definitely on the right track.
Notes: all competitors were suited – ASU, UA, Pros. If there were any non-technical suits after warm-up, I don’t remember seeing them.
Classy act by Greg Earhart and Dorsey to come back to support the seniors. Not an easy thing to do and a better indication of the character of the coach than the previous years’ results would lead the ill-informed.
Lastly, congrats to Bob and staff on not just the win but the buzz they bring on a daily basis. The meet was… Read more »
I would add that U of A had some very good swims also. I think Rocket and his staff have done a great job of starting to put the pieces back together. Give him time, Rocket will get it done. Steve Brown has also done a great job of rebuilding a distance program.
Thumbs up to Bowman and staff. Already looking forward to next years Dual in the Desert. Should be a good one.
Appears impressing the local community with some excitement with pro group exhibitions and victory over rival suggesting willing to rest which at least excited the locals
Crazy that ASU was able to beat UofA its so sad to see a great swimming school decline so quickly.
Or such a bad swimming school improve so fast. UofA has definitely declined slightly, but ASU has also improved dramatically.
Slightly??? UA was 3rd at NCAAs three years ago and is going to struggle to be top 20 this year. That’s a pretty dramatic decline…unprecedented even. Nevertheless, Bowman and his staff deserve a ton of credit for turning around ASU men and I’m sure the women won’t be far behind.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say they either suited up or rested more than usual for this dual meet. These times are not their regular dual meet times. I wouldn’t start saying ASU has improved dramatically or that Bowman has turned the program around based on this one meet. I’m not discrediting them, but I would just wait til the end of the season.
Well, no ASU isn’t going to win Pac12s or NCAAs, but to break 5 school records in any meet means by definition that the team has improved significantly. Even if they go just a bit faster at the end of the season it’s still a huge success. They are on the right track!
Oh true. I agree with you. I thought they were pool records at first. It seems like they broke 5 records in 2014 as well. It’s interesting though that they went faster in many events than they did at their mid-season invite. Curious as to what they’ll do at Pac-12’s.
Wow, really impressive stuff!
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