Senior Tristin Baxter dives off the board during the women's 150-meter butterfly against Denver and UNLV. This was the first meet at home for the Sun Devils this season. (Photo by Diana Lustig)A cloudless sky and warm weather greeted the ASU swim and dive team this weekend as they took on the University of Denver and UNLV for their first home meet.
Swim
The weekend consisted of a non-scored short distance meters competition with Denver on Friday and a scored multi-team dual meet against University of Denver and UNLV on Saturday.The women's team came out on top of both schools, 198.5-98.5 against UNLV and 163-131 against Denver. Meanwhile, the men's team fell 192-105 against Denver and 175.00-124.00 against UNLV, pushing their records to 2-1 and 0-3, respectively.
“The goal is to improve with each dual meet,” head coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker said. “It is so early, and our team is so young and we knew it would be a process.”
After 14 events the women were ahead by almost 40 points on each side and never looked back as they moved comfortably to victory. The men, on the other hand, fell behind early and never recovered.
However, Tierney-Walker said both teams had athletes that stepped up like junior Juanita Barretto, junior Melanie Busch, senior Alex Coci, and freshmen Barkley Perry.
Despite the mens' loss, they performed well as individuals and as a team, and were satisfied with how the meet went. Coci took first in the men’s 100 fly with a time of 48.55.
“I think we had really good performances actually,” Coci said. “All the boys stayed strong and didn’t die at all.”
This was the first collegiate meet for many of ASU's swimmers and divers, but Perry said that didn't stop him from learning, stepping up and making sure that “everything has to be a competition." Perry took third in the 200-free race behind 2 UNLV athletes.
Relays fell into place as the women took third in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:35.09, only .07 seconds away from second place. The women took first in the 400 medley with a time of 3:46.63 and the men took second in their 400 medley with a time of 3:20.09.
The weekend concluded with a satisfied team and comfortable athletes who were itching to race. There is still a lot of swimming left in the year and the coaching staff said they are looking forward to it.
“We won some close races but lost too many close races too,” Tierney-Walker said. “There’s a lot of details to focus on to execute at the NCAA level.”
Dive
The dive team looked dominant as both the men and women swept the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events.ASU men's team senior Riley McCormick overwhelmingly placed first in both events with a score of 328.45 on the 1-meter and 402.6 on the 3 meter. McCormick’s only real competition was sophomore Hunter Atha, a fellow ASU diver who scored 295.75 and 334.05 respectively.
The women, led by redshirt junior Hailey Casper, dominated the competition taking first and second in both events as well. Casper scored 339.4 on the 3-meter and 319.75 on the 1-meter while teammate Morgan Weller took second scoring a 327.35 on 3 meter and 319.75 on the 1 meter.
Reach the reporter at nolan.kwit@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @nolankwit
