The Wisconsin Badgers went on the road Friday night, beating Arizona State to open its season while sweeping all but one individual freestyle race.
The meet only featured 200 yard distances of each non-free stroke, making the freestyle events that much more important in terms of team points.
Women’s Meet
On the women’s side, sophomore sprinter Chase Kinney starred, sweeping the 50 and 100 frees as established star Ivy Martin jumped into off events.
Kinney went 23.12 to win the 50 free early on, leading a 1-2 charge for Wisconsin with junior Annie Tamblyn second in 23.82. Kinney came back after the diving break to win the 100 free as well, going 51.35. That just nipped ASU’s Alysha Busch (51.47) for the win.
The Badgers also dominated the distance events on the women’s side. Junior Jenny Hoeltzen paced the 1000, going 10:00.00 even, and senior Aja Van Hout made an appearance in the 500, going 4:56.23 for the win.
The only free race Wisconsin lost was the 200, where Arizona State’s Kat Simonovic was 1:49.79 to lead a 1-2 finish. Juanita Barretto (1:50.18) was second for the home team, with both girls getting in ahead of Wisconsin’s stud sprinter Ivy Martin (1:50.81). Simonovic was also second in the 500 for ASU.
The lady Badgers won both relays. The medley relay was 1:41.71 with Martin swimming backstroke. Kinney’s presence as a solid anchor might make that a viable relay option for Wisconsin – Kinney was a quick 22.33, while Martin was 26.56 on backstroke, both the fastest splits in their respective strokes. Also on the winning relay were Anna Meinholz (28.40 breaststroke) and Dana Grindall (24.42 butterfly).
Meinholz and Grindall each came back to win an individual event for the Badgers, Meinholz the 200 breast (2:17.32) and Grindall the 200 fly (2:01.94).
Van Hout topped Meinholz to win the 200 IM in 2:02.74. Meanwhile sophomore Madeline Hazle picked up the 200 back for Wisconsin (2:02.01) to add to the team’s total.
ASU did get a win in 1-meter diving, with senior Hailey Casper scoring 280.80, but Wisconsin’s Ashley Peterson won the 3-meter event with a 317.85.
The Badgers also won the 200 free relay to close the night, getting a big 22.23 leadoff from Ivy Martin to win in 1:32.01. That leadoff swim for Martin is the fastest time in the NCAA so far in this young season, more than two tenths better than Florida’s Natalie Hinds.
The Badgers rode that dominant effort to a 142-94 win over the host Sun Devils.
Men’s Meet
ASU put up a tougher fight on the men’s side, sweeping the relays but still falling to the Badgers 130.5-111.5. The 200 medley relay team of Barkley Perry, Thibaut Capitane, Tadas Duskinas and Patrick Park went 1:30.33 to give the Sun Devils a narrow win over Wisconsin’s 1:30.72.
Wisconsin fired back in the next two freestyle events, though, to pull things back in. Nicholas Caldwell went 9:36.22 to win the 1000 free, leading a 1-2 charge with Josh Anderson. Then sophomore Matt Hutchins nabbed the 200 free victory with a 1:39.63 for the Badgers.
That kicked off a freestyle sweep for Wisconsin. The closest they came to dropping an event was the 50 free, where Brett Pinfold tied for the win with ASU’s Tadas Duskinas at 20.89. The 100 free was a blowout, with Cannon Clifton going 45.19 to win by nearly two seconds.
Caldwell came back to double up and win the 500 free, going 4:36.16 to give Wisconsin a share of every freestyle title on the day.
Backstroke star Drew teDuits won his only individual race, the 200 IM. He went 1:51.85 to top teammate Ryan O’Donnell. With the former NCAA champ teDuits out of the 200 back, Wisconsin junior Austin Byrd got the win in 1:49.54. That was a tight race with ASU’s Barkley Perry (1:49.75), but Byrd rode a big back half to earn the victory.
Australian senior Nick Schafer won the 200 breast for Wisconsin, putting up a solid 2:01.05 in the season opener. That was about a second up on Arizona State’s Thibaut Capitane.
ASU did get the 200 fly win, with Patrick Park going 1:50.74 to beat Wisconsin’s Harrison Tran.
Sun Devil freshman diver Heikki Makikallio got two wins on the boards, scoring 296.18 on 3-meter and 289.88 on 1-meter.
The Sun Devils closed the meet with a win in the 200 free relay. Despite Wisconsin’s sweep of the free races, the free relay went to ASU’s Park, Duskinas, Perry and Sean Kao at 1:21.82. That included a 19.95 from the 50 free co-winner Duskinas.
Both teams are back in action tomorrow, with ASU hosting another Big Ten rival with the Minnesota Gophers, while Wisconsin heads to the University of Arizona to take on the Wildcats.
Great start for the badgers!
1:32.0 without using their 2nd fastest swimmer in Chase Kinney? Look out for the badgers! And I do believe Ivy’s 22.2 breaks her 22.3 time from last year as the fastest 50 in an October meet ever. Watch out for her rocket speed everyone else.