A busy weekend is on tap for the ASU men's and women's swimming and diving teams, as they compete today through Sunday just one week after beginning their season at Hawaii.
The men opened the year with a victory behind two individual swimming wins from sophomore Lucas Azevedo and two diving wins from senior Joona Puhakka. The women, however, lost to a stellar Hawaii team despite strong performances from sophomore Ellis Schieman, who scored 13 points, and junior Christine Creek and sophomore Sarah Fischer, who earned nine points each.
"I think both teams did really well," coach Michael Chasson said. "The men won, that's great, and the women didn't, but Hawaii's women are really good. They have three of the best divers in the country, and the girl that won the diving event was the NCAA champion. Hawaii has a girl in every event but breaststroke that is an NCAA-caliber swimmer, so we had our work cut out for us."
The Sun Devil men and women will compete in their first home meet of the season today at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m. against UC-Santa Barbara. The Saturday morning meet will also feature the Penn State women's team. Also, 12 potential recruits are coming to Tempe for a visit, so Chasson is excited about what the weekend will bring.
"We get to race in our own pool," Chasson said. "Santa Barbara is a solid team, and the Penn State women are very good, so we are going to get some good races. We got a lot going on this weekend, so the team is going to be busy. We need to stay focused, come in and race against two pretty good teams, so I think it will be a good test to see where we are."
On Sunday, both teams will travel to Las Vegas to take on UNLV, which should provide another good early-season challenge, especially for the men's team.
Reach the reporter at matthew.storey@asu.edu.
