Senior Tristan Baxter swims during the women's 1000 yard freestyle. The match was held at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center Friday, Nov. 8th. (Photo by Arianna Grainey)The Sun Devils came out Friday to compete against USC, their Pac-12 competitors, and while the dive team thrived, both men and women’s swimming fell short.
In the first day of two extremely competitive meets this weekend, the Sun Devils quickly fell behind the Trojans and never succeeded in making up the ground. The team must rebound and apply it Saturday as the men face the Air Force and the women face off against UCLA.
“We’re very familiar with the Pac-12 teams,” coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker said. “We’re fortunate we’re in the best conference in the country, so no surprises, in other words.”
The Trojans boast one of the best swimming teams in the country, a top-five school, so despite what the scoreboard said, the team, including junior Zac Dalby, said it competed well.
“The thing people overlook is that the Pac-12 is the hardest conference by far,” Dalby said. “It’s cool you can come to the P12-12 and race against some of the best in the world, not just the country.”
Even if the athletes believe their performance was good, the women fell short 167-128 while the men ended at 171-119, leaving them with 1-3 and 0-4 records, respectively.
Friday’s meet was still a dual meet, and while it does carry weight and is important, senior Alex Popa, said she continues to look toward to later part of the year.
“It’s not about the team we’re racing against,” Popa said. “It’s to see we improve and are getting better as a team, so that’s why we can say that we have hopes for the rest of the season.”
The Sun Devils swim again Saturday at noon at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center and look for a more competitive outing from the team.
“We’re hoping to swim better tomorrow, that’s the goal,” Tierney-Walker said. “We’ll look at film tonight, look at some adjustments to make and we’ll come out tomorrow.”
Dive
The Arizona State dive team continued its’ successes today as both the male and female sides competed very strongly against the Trojans.
A fully healed Riley McCormick continues to challenge teams as he took first today in the 1-meter dive, scoring 357.08, and the 3-meter dive, scoring 423.83.
The women dominated as well, as sophomore Morgan Weller placed first in the 1 meter dive and third in the 3-meter, while teammate, junior Hailey Casper captured first in the 3-meter, and second in the 1-meter.
Sophomore transfer Hunter Atha was unable to repeat his performance from last meet and placed fourth in both the one and three meter dive, scoring 257.78 and 291.60, respectively.
Reach the reporter at nolan.kwit@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @NolanKwit
