ASU swim and dive hung with Stanford in every race but only won six, allowing Stanford to beat the men 157-83 and the women 176-63.
The first event set the tempo with both Stanford’s men (No. 5 overall) and women (No. 2 overall) taking first place in the 400 medley.
The men's race was deadly close. ASU lost, but were only two seconds behind first place and .07 of a second away from third. The women finished in 3:48, placing third, 10 seconds behind first-place Stanford.
ASU got its first win in the 200-yard freestyle when junior Katarina Simonovic hit 1:49 seconds, beating Stanford sophomore Ally Howe by .06 seconds. In addition to winning the 200-yard freestyle, Simonovic finished second in the 200-yard butterfly (2:05).
The women's 200-freestyle was just the second event of the day, but the men's team had to wait longer to get its first victory. In the 100-yard freestyle, junior Richard Brohus got the win in 44 seconds. He also won the 100 backstroke.
The dive team put in work as well; in fact, this was the only part of the day the Sun Devils thoroughly dominated in. They won three of the four events with sophomore David Hoffer winning the one-meter and three-meter dives. Sophomore Mara Aiacoboae barely beat Stanford senior Alex Clay in the one-meter event with a score of 293.70 to 291.83.
A majority of finishes were close. Sophomore Patrick Park lost the 200-yard butterfly by .45 of a second, junior Barkley Perry won by less than a second in the 200-yard backstroke and sophomore Christian Lorenz was a mere second away from winning the 200-yard breaststroke.
ASU's men's team won four events and the women's won two. Stanford consistently placed multiple players in the top-three. In the 400-yard individual medley, the Cardinal swept the Sun Devils right out of the race, placing three swimmers in the top.
ASU assistant coach and Olympic gold medalist Misty Hyman's first return to her alma mater was not was ideal for the Sun Devils. Though they talked about being motivated, they weren't able to defeat the top-five Stanford teams.
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
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