Check out more Sun Devil swim and dive photos in this slideshow.
For a team wanting to improve on its success at the NCAA Championships last year, being on top with the nation’s best in a regular season invitational is a good start.The No. 23 ASU women’s swim team finished the prestigious Arena Invitational in Long Beach, Calif. placing at second overall scoring 865.5 points, beating out 20 teams that included No. 7 Stanford and No. 25 UCLA.
The lone team that beat the Sun Devils was No. 2 Cal, the defending NCAA Champion.
“All in all, (it was a) good experience,” swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker said. “I think we’ve improved. I think it will set us up for a good Christmas training.
“I think we performed at a very high level.”
On the first day, the women’s 400 Medley Relay team of Kelli Kyle, Rebecca Ejdervik, Caroline Kuczynski and Shannon Landgrebe took first place in a field of 16 teams, finishing in a time of 3:16.3.
After breaking the school record in the 1000-yard Freestyle last week against UCLA, junior Cassie Morrice rewrote the record books again for the 500 Free in 4:41.31, good enough to beat the NCAA “B” Standard for that race.
Ejdervik also went on to win on the second day in the 100 Breast, the same event that she broke the Arena Invitational record in last year’s competition. Kyle recorded another individual victory for the Sun Devils in the 100 Back.
Also during the second day, Kyle, Ejdervik, Landgrebe and junior Caroline Kuczynski placed second in the 200 Medley Relay in a time of 1:39.34.
In the men’s races, the Sun Devils finished eighth overall in a field that was mainly dominated by No. 4 Stanford.
The men did see an impressive showing in the 200 Free Relay, as the foursome of Daniel Jurgs, Herbie Behm, Jesper Akesson and Ryan Dignan took fourth in a time of 1:22.45, just a second shy of the “B” cut for the event.
Despite the success that the Sun Devils created in terms of scoring, Tierney-Walker was not really aiming for large points from her teams.
“Really, this was a meet we weren’t paying attention to scoring (in),” Tierney-Walker said. “It was more about improving our times and competing against the Stanfords and the Cals.”
The ASU swimmers now enter a long hiatus in racing and do not compete again until Jan. 7. That being said, Tierney-Walker wants her team to stay active.
“Right now, it’s about staying healthy and getting better training-wise,” she said. “This a unique period for us without competition for about a month. It’s an opportunity to get healthy, find details, hone our skills and get better heading into second semester.”
Divers fare well in Tucson
Over the weekend, sporadic temperatures and a large number of entries created a mentally draining environment for the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson.
Still, that did not stop the Sun Devil divers from placing high in the meet.
“We had overall a pretty good performance,” dive coach Mark Bradshaw said. “It was a little bit of a test not only for our diving skills, but for some mental toughness.”
Sophomore Hailey Casper sealed a victory in the 3-meter springboard in the first day of the Wildcat Invitational.
“She’s exactly one step ahead where she was at this time of the year last season,” Bradshaw said. “She went up there and did a reverse two and a half for probably the best one I have seen her do all season (in the preliminaries).
“It was good to get a win from her because she’s worked very hard, and it’s a testament of where she can go.”
Senior Constantin Blaha placed second in both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard men’s events for the meet, while senior Cameron Bradshaw finished fourth in those two meets.
Since Cameron Bradshaw and Hailey Casper are entered in the Canadian Diving Winter Championships starting Dec. 18, coach Bradshaw wants his divers to keep training hard as well.
“I’m going to use this competition as a benchmark and go, ‘OK, these are the things we need to work on,’ and for every individual it’s different,” coach Bradshaw said. “We’re just going to train real hard until the semester.
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu
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