The bar continues to rise for the ASU women’s swim team under swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker.
The No. 21 Sun Devils concluded their 2011-12 season on March 10 by placing 12th at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Auburn, Ala., their highest finish since 2005. All eight women entered into the meet received All-America honors.
“The NCAA championship was everyone’s primary focus, and this was a real step forward for the program,” Tierney-Walker said.
The 400-meter medley relay team of seniors Rebecca Ejdervik and Kelli Kyle and juniors Caroline Kuczynski and Shannon Landgrebe kicked off the meet by breaking the school event record in the preliminaries with a time of 3:32.11. The team topped the time again in the finals and rewrote the record in 3:31.52 for a seventh-place finish. The same quartet also placed 11th in the 800-meter medley relay.
ASU’s 800 freestyle relay team of Landgrebe, junior Cassie Morrice, junior Mattie Kukors and sophomore Tristin Baxter placed 13th.
After failing to qualify for finals last season, Ejdervik ended her illustrious collegiate career by finishing third in the 100 breaststroke.
“Rebecca did a great job, especially from the disappointment a year ago,” Tierney-Walker said.
Baxter set a school record in the individual 1650 free at 16:02.60 and finished eighth in the nation. Landgrebe (200 free) and Kuczynski (100 free) also placed in the top eight of their events.
Senior diver Elina Eggers placed sixth on the 3-meter springboard and eighth in the platform event, despite diving with a virus she contracted before the meet.
“She was really not feeling good,” dive coach Mark Bradshaw said. “She lost a lot of weight, felt dehydrated by the time we got to the championships. I didn’t know what to expect from her. She was pretty weak. Like the true champion and fighter she is, she competed every day, and in my estimation, it was all a big surprise.”
As for the rest of the women’s swim team, the Sun Devils will lose two seniors, but hope to continue their progress on the national stage with their returning swimmers.
“We’ll certainly miss Rebecca and Kelli Kyle,” Tierney-Walker said. “They’ve certainly added much depth and integrity to this program, but we have (the rest of the team from NCAAs) back, and hopefully we can make strides.”
No. 1 California won the NCAA team title, marking the Golden Bears’ second women’s swim national championship in a row.
Bradshaw, Blaha place high in men’s NCAAs
The performances by senior divers Constantin Blaha and Cameron Bradshaw fluctuated greatly at the NCAA men’s championships in Federal Way, Wash., last week.
“The boys’ meet was a tale of two days,” Mark Bradshaw said.
The two men kicked off the meet on Thursday with Cameron Bradshaw finishing third in the 1-meter springboard and Blaha following in fourth place.
After a day that Mark Bradshaw called “awesome,” both divers faltered in their final event.
In the 3-meter springboard, Blaha finished 12th in the Console final, with Cameron Bradshaw placing 19th.
“It was a little bit of a disappointment,” Mark Bradshaw said. “We didn’t finish as well as we could have in the 3-meter event.”
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu
Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press email newsletter.