Sophomore distance swimmer Anna Olasz competes in the 1000-yard freestyle against Stanford sophomore Tara Halsted (not pictured), Saturday, Jan. 2015 at the Mona Plummer Aquatics Complex in Tempe. Olasz came from behind in the one-on-one race and edged out Halsted by almost seven seconds. (Ben Moffat/The State Press)ASU swim and dive's usual standouts during this season will be looking to earn favorable results at the first wave of the Pac-12 Championships.
The first half of the conference championship meet, hosted in Federal Way, Washington, will contain women's swimming as well as men's and women's diving events.
In the Pac-12 Championships, different events are held each day, with each event's preliminary and final rounds taking place the same day.
In addition, the 16 swimmers with the best times in the preliminary round advance to the final round. The swimmers are put into groups based on where they place — Group "A" contains places 1-8 and Group "B" contains places 9-16.
Women's Swimming:
The young ASU women (4-7) started out the season injury-riddled, but rattled off four straight wins between December and January. Although it has lost three straight dual meets, the team's performances were solid for its standards, especially because it faced three high-caliber conference opponents: No. 1 Cal, No. 3 Stanford and No. 11 Arizona.
Breaststroke:
The breaststrokers have been ever important for the ASU women this year, consistently earning good results in dual meets. Freshman Jorie Caneta and senior Tory Houston's seed times for the 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke both place in the conference's top 15 and the two will be aiming to continue the consistent performance this season at the Pac-12 Championships. In January, Caneta won the 100 breaststroke and placed second — behind Houston — in the 200 breaststroke against No. 1 Cal. The next day, she finished first in the 200 breaststroke against Stanford on ASU swim and dive's Senior Day.
Backstroke:
ASU has three swimmers whose seed times place in the top 25 in the 200 backstroke—junior Jennifer Morgan (No. 11), seniors Juanita Barreto (No. 19) and Melanie Busch (No. 25). In addition, Barreto and Busch also place in the top 25 of the 100 backstroke with sophomore Ingibjorg Jonsdottir, who holds the No. 10 seed time.
Freestyle:
Junior Jamie Friderichs and sophomore Anna Olasz have the 17th- and 18th-best 500 freestyle seed times (season-best in that specific event) in the Pac-12. However, their times are in the top third of all swimmers competing in the event.
ASU also has four seniors, one junior, five sophomores and a freshman in the 100 freestyle, which displays the team's promising youth. However, two of the seniors are Busch and Barreto, who hold the team's top two season-best times in the event.
Diving:
The ASU diving team has been arguably the most consistent for ASU swim and dive this season, with first-place finishes as well as competition from top to bottom. Six divers are competing at the Pac-12 Championships — David Hoffer, Hailey Casper, Mara Aiacoboae, Hunter Atha, Heikki Makikallio and Sydney Czaus.
In the Pac-12 Championships, the diving events are the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform dives.
Hoffer, a freshman, has had an accomplished season, winning two consecutive Pac-12 Diver of the Month awards and placing second in the 3-meter dive at the USAFA Invitational. He will compete in all the events at Pac-12, hoping to continue the successful freshman campaign.
Casper, a redshirt senior who has overcome two shoulder surgeries during her ASU career, is set to compete in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives. Although she only returned to the 3-meter in January due to injury, she will be diving in her last conference championships and will look to make one last run at a title. Casper placed first in the championship round of the 3-meter dive at the USAFA Invitational and second in the same event at the National Canadian Diving Championships.
Aiacoboae, another freshman standout, will compete in all the events at the conference championships. She is expected to contend for a title in the platform dive, where she placed first out of 35 divers at the USAFA Invitational. In addition, she finished fourth in the championship round of the 3-meter dive.
Atha will compete in all of the events. Last year, he was a finalist in the platform dive at the Pac-12 Championships, and with improvement this season, is expected to compete for the title in the event again. Atha also placed fifth in the platform dive at the USAFA Invitational.
Makikallio dealt with back issues earlier in the season, but has made steady improvement since. The junior transfer from Wisconsin is set to compete in every event. However, he only has one platform dive result this season.
Czaus, a senior, will only compete in the platform dive due to the significant injuries she has suffered throughout her career. In addition, her routine of dives will be a low-degree of difficulty because of the injuries sustained.
ASU women's swimming and the men's and women's diving team, which are young and fairly inexperienced, will be looking to turn some heads at the first wave of the Pac-12 Championships.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or follow @justintoscano3 on Twitter
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