Throughout the dual-meet season, the ASU swim and dive coaches were not very concerned about winning meets, but rather getting their athletes in shape for critical postseason meets.
With the dual-meet season over and the Pac-12 Championships starting Wednesday, the approach has changed for the Sun Devils.
“Our whole team wants to qualify as many girls as we can,” junior Caroline Kuczynski said. “In the actual meet, we want to score as many points. I think our relays are a huge part of the meet. It scores double points, and our biggest goal is getting into the finals in the relays.
“If we qualify in as many relays as we can, get as many people in the final and just score as many points, then we get hopefully the highest score.”
Currently, the No. 24 ASU women’s 400-medley relay time of 3:36.13 ranks fourth in the Pac-12, and swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker usually enters all of her athletes in their best events in meets stacked with elite talent.
The women’s field in Federal Way, Wash., from Feb. 22-25 features four other ranked teams in No.1 California, No. 7 USC, No. 8 Stanford and No. 9 UA. The men’s competition in Long Beach, Calif., from Feb 29-March 3 consists of four: No. 1 UA, No. 3 Stanford, No. 5 USC and No. 6 Cal.
The Sun Devils have faced each team at least once this season and feel they have adjusted after every meet. Both the men and women’s teams already placed over several Pac-12 teams at the Arena Invitational in November.
“The Pac-12 is one of the best conferences in the country, but it’s good for us to still be challenged by teams better than us, and that made us improve in things,” senior Rebecca Ejdervik said.
Ejdervik is looking to defend her back-to-back Pac-10 100-yard breaststroke title this week.
The divers head to the King County Aquatic Center on Wednesday and hope to repeat their success from last year.
Senior Constantin Blaha is the reigning Pac-12 champion on the 3-meter springboard, while sophomore Elina Eggers placed second in both the women’s 1- and 3-meter springboard events.
Training and conditioning were large concerns throughout the dual-meet season, but coach Mark Bradshaw now believes his divers are at their best heading into the Pac-12.
“Our training has been set for these upcoming championship meets,” Bradshaw said. “We’ve done all of our groundwork. It’s all about getting up there and getting ready to compete. What you’ve done, what you’ve trained for, we’ve already gotten to that point.”
Tierney-Walker also described her team’s progress heading into the conference championships in three simple words. “We’re ready to go."
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu
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