Upon the arrival of 2012, many people set resolutions to improve their lifestyle. As the ASU swim and dive team resumes competition in Utah over the weekend, swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker set an upbeat goal for her promising squad in honor of the new year.
“I want every single person on this team contributing to the success of this program, and that would be our New Year’s resolution,” Tierney-Walker said.
The swim team has not competed since Nov. 21, but Tierney-Walker said her athletes trained well over the winter break and that a shorter hiatus around this time of the year has been favorable compared to past seasons. The third-year coach saw a vast improvement in the Sun Devils, particularly in freshmen Ore Wahnishe, Miranda Tornatore, Lori Layne Kremer and Zac Dalby. Tierney-Walker also believes her veterans are getting closer to competing at a championship level.
“I’m confident that our skills are at a higher level now,” she said.
The Sun Devils arrive in Provo on Friday to take on BYU and compete in Salt Lake City against Utah approximately 19 hours later.
BYU has a young team that features 60 underclassmen (40 on the men’s team) compared to 31 on ASU’s roster. The Cougars, however, boast an All-American in senior diver Brandon Watson, the two-time Mountain West Diver of the Year who won the USA Diving Winter Championships in his junior season. Watson placed first in the 3-meter in the Wildcat Invitational on Nov. 20, defeating ASU seniors Constantin Blaha and Cameron Bradshaw.
ASU has already met BYU once this season in their last meet at the Arena Invitational, placing over the Cougars in both the men and women’s divisions.
Coming off fifth-place finishes last season in the MWC Championships for both its teams, Utah is in its inaugural season competing in the Pac-12. The Utes sent just one swimmer to the NCAA Championships in senior Hannah Caron for the 200 IM, 100 fly and 200 fly events last season.
Utah sophomore and Dobson High graduate Traycie Swartz was named the Pac-12 Swimmer of the Week on Dec. 31 after beating the NCAA “B” cuts in both the 100 back and the 50 free and helped the Utes win four relay events in the Incarnate Word Invitational on Dec. 19.
“They’re both really good teams,” Tierney-Walker said. “Both are very competitive on the men’s side. On the women’s side, they’ve got a couple of very competitive and NCAA-level athletes.
“For our team, the most important approach is being a team and making sure whether your fighting to win a race or getting that last point.”
Tierney-Walker doesn’t deny that back-to-back dual meets are an issue for her team, but is more concerned about the fact that ASU has not competed for more than a month. She also said being away and at a high altitude also presents a challenge to the ASU swimmers.
“The bottom line is how we perform as a group, as individuals and contributing to the group,” Tierney-Walker said. “If we compete with passion, compete as a team compete like how we’ve trained the past few months, I think we’ll be fine.”
Not a bad way to keep a New Year’s resolution.
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu
