Swimming cruises against Utah
The 24th-ranked Arizona State women’s swimming and diving team (5-1) notched another team victory and it’s second dual victory over a Pac-12 opponent, as the Sun Devil women defeated the Utes handily 178-100. The Sun Devil men (0-5) once again swam a close meet, however the team fell to Utah 135-165.
The women won all but four events on the day with senior Penelope Yamauchi earning a pair of victories in the 200 breast and the 200 IM. Yamauchi out swam the competition in breaststroke by four seconds to finish with a time of 2:19.31. The senior also won the 200 IM by a wide margin, touching in with a time of 2:05.87, almost five seconds over her next competitor.
The Sun Devils started off the competition by taking the top spot in the first six events of the meet. ASU opened up the meet on a high note with a first-place victory in the 200 medley relay. Sophomore Cassie Morrice, the ASU record holder in the 1000 free, finished in first place in the event with a time of 10:17.37. Junior Shannon Landgrebe took the second victory of the day for the Sun Devils, taking the top spot in the 200 free with a time of 1:51.60. Victories by Kelli Kyle in the 100 back, Rebecca Ejdervik in the 100 breast, and Caroline Kuczynski in the 200 fly followed before the Sun Devil monopoly was broken up in the 50 free by a Utah victory.
Kallie Golden and Tristin Baxter also earned victories on the day in the 200 back and 500 free, respectively.
For the Sun Devil men, the men’s 200 medley relay opened up the meet with a victory, touching in with a time of 1:32.79. Daniel Jurgs would grab the first individual victory for the Sun Devils, as the sophomore took first in the 200 free with a time of 1:43.43. Freshman Noah Brown also notched a victory for the Sun Devils, finishing first in the 200 back with a time of 1:51.93. Caleb Veazy rounded out the individual victories for ASU, handily defeating the competition in the 500 free by two seconds with a time of 4:43.83.
In diving the Sun Devils dominated for the second-straight day. Senior Constantin Blaha took first place in the 1-meter springboard after winning the 3-meter the day before at BYU. Blaha score a total of 398.70 to finish in first. Freshman Kevin Olson also finished strong taking second in the event with a score of 303.97.
In the men’s 3-meter springboard, senior Cameron Bradshaw blew the competition out of the water. Aside from Blaha’s second-place score, Bradshaw’s score of 411.30 was over 100 points greater than any of the other four competitors in the event. Blaha finished second with a score of 384.90.
The Sun Devils next travel to the Bay Area where they once again take on Pac-12 opponents California and Stanford, Jan. 21-22. Arizona State previously faced both teams at the Arena Invitational in Long Beach, Calif., with the Sun Devil women finishing second ahead of Stanford and behind first-place California.