From staff reports:
Youth and experience propelled ASU's women's swimming and diving team into 12th place at the NCAA Championships held last week at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center at Purdue University.
Senior Agnes Kovacs, Florencia Szigeti and Trisha Tumlinson all made a splash in their final events as Sun Devils.
Kovacs swam to a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke Saturday, less than a day after she collected her fourth consecutive All-America honors in the 100-yard event, where she placed seventh.
On the platform, Tumlinson -- ASU's lone diver -- scored a fourth-place finish. Last year Tumlinson was the runner-up in the event after scoring 454.35 points.
Szigeti finished 25th in the 100-yard freestyle.
Freshmen Caitlin Andrew and Sarah Fischer represented ASU with strong swims at their first national championship meet.
Andrew claimed the Sun Devils' highest finish on Friday in the 100-yard butterfly -- her time of 53.06 took fourth place. She set the school record in February when she won the event at the Pac-10 Championships.
The Sun Devil men conclud their season at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday, in Minneapolis. Joona Puhakka, David Kolozar, Leonardo Martins and Emerson Ward will represent ASU at the meet.
Wrestling
The ASU wrestling team put the finishing touches on a memorable season with a top-20 finish at the 2005 NCAA National Championships.
The Sun Devils took 13th in the tournament just one season after missing the championships entirely.
Junior Cain Velasquez (285 pounds) and sophomore Brian Stith (157) continued their success with All-America honors over the weekend.
Velasquez finished fifth in the nation while Stith took sixth overall. Each wrestler took first place in the Pac-10 Championships earlier this month to lead ASU to the overall conference title.
Velasquez defeated Penn senior Matt Feast twice to claim the nation's fifth spot. Stith won four of seven matches but dropped his final two to claim the sixth-overall position.
Juniors Ryan Bader (197) and Jeremy Mendoza (125), freshman Patrick Pitsch (165) and senior Patrick Williams (149) each won two matches at the tournament but did not place.
The Sun Devils were the lone Pac-10 team to finish in the top 20.
Water polo
March has been anything but kind to the ASU water polo team.
After wrapping up February with three straight wins, the Sun Devils have dropped six of seven matches.
ASU won its home opener on March 12 against UC Irvine, but could only muster seven combined goals in back-to-back losses to No. 3 Long Beach State and No. 9 Indiana.
The Sun Devils (5-11, 1-4 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) concluded the week with an 11-6 loss to No. 5 Hawaii Thursday.
ASU will look to get back on the winning track when it hosts No. 1 UCLA on April 2.
Gymnastics
Despite a rash of injuries, the ASU gymnastics team had its best overall team and road score in a loss to No. 2 Utah at The Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
Junior Ashley Kelly (sore foot) only competed in two events and junior Lauren Powell (ankle), freshmen Karissa Vossler (knee) and Taryn Shockley were not at full strength.
Even without the full stable of gymnasts, coach John Spini and his squad was still able to score 196.6, easily its best score of the season. The matchup with Utah was also the first time the team scored above 49 on all four events this year.
Reach the staff at state.press@asu.edu.
