It has been more than two weeks since the ASU swimming and diving teams last competed, but their coach believes the long layover will benefit the Sun Devils.
“It really doesn’t hurt us in anyway,” coach Michael Chasson said. “It gave us some time to get some people rested and allowed some swimmers who were nursing injuries to get healthy. We won’t really know how it affected us until this weekend.”
ASU will head to Southern California this weekend, where the No. 25 women (0-2) will compete in dual meets against No. 19 UCLA (3-0) on Friday and USC Saturday.
The men will counter No. 22 USC on Friday in a dual meet and continue their stay for Saturday’s USC Invite.
Friday will mark the first taste of competition for the men, who have yet to race this year due to scheduling conflicts that arose after the team’s funding was cut in May.
“The guys will all do well. We just want them to improve,” Chasson said. “We can only travel 12 guys, largely because we lost most of our recruits when the program was cut.”
Chasson said the team would have no chance at winning because it cannot fill all the races with only 12 swimmers.
Chasson does not care so much about the win-loss record, but rather the individual performances of each swimmer.
“We should be competitive,” Chasson said. “We should be able to keep it close.”
The women, however, will be participating in their third dual meet of the year and are expecting to get more solid swims out of their stellar freshman class.
“The freshmen are doing well,” Chasson said. “Hopefully they continue to prove themselves, and I hope the keep getting better. They are doing well in practice, but who knows once you actually get into competition?”
So far the freshmen have put up some fast times. Sasha Stephens won both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke against the University of Kansas in ASU’s opening meet.
Freshman Jordyn Green captured first in the 200-yard breaststroke against Southern Methodist University.
However, the biggest boost in points this weekend will come from the divers.
In both of the previous meets, only one diver was able to compete due to injuries. Chasson said there would be three female divers competing for ASU this weekend.
The men will send two divers to Los Angeles, senior Micky Benedetti and freshman Cameron Bradshaw.
Reach the reporter at ryan.g.campbell@asu.edu.
