With the Pac-12 championships a month away, the ASU swim and dive program saw another chance to stack up against two of the best teams in the conference last weekend.
However, both the men and women’s teams left empty-handed.
The weekend started in Palo Alto, Calif., on Friday where Stanford had its way the entire meet. The No. 6 Cardinal women’s team routed the No. 24 Sun Devils 132.5–97.5, followed by the No. 3 Stanford men’s team blanketing ASU, 160–71.
On the men’s side, the Cardinal did not allow the Sun Devils to finish in the first two places in any event for the entire meet.
The ASU women opened at the top with a win in the 400-yard medley relay and a first-place finish in the 1000 free by sophomore Tristin Baxter. The Cardinal rebounded and had a swimmer place first and second in the following five events.
Senior Penelope Yamauchi was the other Sun Devil swimmer to record a win, placing first in the 200 breast. Senior Elina Eggers, the lone active female diver for the Sun Devils, tallied wins in both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events.
Bears drop Sun Devils
The Sun Devils did not find much success in Berkeley on the scoreboard either.
Despite more victories on Saturday, the ASU women’s team fell to No. 2 California 169–114.
The No. 6 Golden Bears, the defending men’s national champions, also won on the men’s side 158–128.
Baxter recorded another first-place finish in the 1000 free, clocking in at 9:56.41. After breaking her leg prior to the season and missing the first two meets, the ASU coaching staff is impressed by her speedy recovery.
“The way she’s been able to rebound and get back on track and reset her focus and her goals for this season has been pretty awesome to watch,” assistant swim coach Scott Goodrich said. “It’s great to see her back to the level she was beforehand.”
Yamauchi (200 breast), junior Shannon Landgrebe (200 free) and senior Rebecca Ejdervik (100 breast) also contributed individual victories for the Sun Devils.
In diving, Eggers and senior Constantin Blaha both recorded wins in the 1-meter and 3- meter springboard events for ASU.
Despite the losses against two conference foes, the team considers its weekend performance as an improvement compared to recent seasons.
“For us to come out there and compete, we just took a giant leap compared to two years ago when we swam (against Stanford and Cal),” Goodrich said. “Our team is more cohesive in terms of being a team, and we are competing better and better against those two elite teams.
“It’s just great to see the progression from two years ago to the meet this weekend, and how much they’ve improved both in the water and as a team, together. I think that was really promising to see this weekend.”
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu
