Freshman Jorie Caneta (left) keeps pace with Cal sophomore Celina Li in the 200-meter breaststroke, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2015, at Mona Plummer Aquatic Complex in Tempe. ASU senior Tory Houston (not pictured) won with a time of 2:16:81; Caneta finished second with a time of 2:17:52. (Krista Tillman/The State Press)ASU swim and dive is sending seven women and four men to NCAA Championships, which will take place from March 19 to 21 for the women and March 26 to 28 for the men.
Senior Melanie Busch, junior Marina Spadoni, sophomore Ingibjorg Jonsdottir and freshman Jorie Caneta are all part of ASU's 200 medley relay team that qualified for NCAAs with a time of 1:37.53.
Jonsdottir is also competing in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke. She earned a 22.70 and 52.96 in the events, respectively.
The fifth ASU women's swimmer is sophomore Kat Simonovic, whose time of 4:47.06 in the 500 freestyle at Pac-12s qualified her for a spot in the event at NCAAs.
Senior Hailey Casper and freshman Mara Aiacoboae are representing the Sun Devil women on the diving board at NCAAs, looking to expand on a successful season for ASU women's diving.
Aiacoboae is set to compete in the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform dives.
In Pac-12s, she placed ninth in the 1-meter dive and 10th in the 3-meter.
She stepped up for the platform dive, though, placing second out of 34 total divers in the preliminary round of the event. In the event final, she kept second place with a total score of 649.10, which was 20 points higher than the third-place finisher.
However, Casper is only diving in the 3-meter, an event which she placed second in during the National Canadian Diving Championships.
On the men's side, sophomore Tadas Duskinas is competing in the 100 butterfly, 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Duskinas qualified for NCAAs with a time of 46.10 in the event, which ranks 17th out of the 49 invited swimmers — the 46.10 is also the ASU's team-best and his season-best time in the 100 butterfly.
For the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle events, Duskinas clocked 19.87 and 44.03, respectively, to qualify for NCAAs.
David Hoffer and junior Hunter Atha will be representing ASU in men's diving.
Hoffer is looking to expand on a stellar freshman campaign, which was headlined by back-to-back Pac-12 Diver of the Month awards in December and January — the honors contributed to ASU's Pac-12-best 16 Diver of the Month awards in conference history.
He placed sixth in the final round of the men's 3-meter dive with a total score of 731.45 at Pac-12s, becoming the second ASU diver to advance to NCAAs.
Atha will be competing in the platform dive, where he scored a 658.75 cumulative score for sixth place in the Pac-12 Championships.
In addition, junior Thibaut Capitaine is an alternate for the 200 breaststroke and will compete if circumstances allow and need arises.
The women's NCAA Championships will take place in Greensboro, North Carolina, while the men will compete in Iowa City, Iowa, as they look to put a positive finishing touch on a season characterized by the display of young talent.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or follow @justintoscano3 on Twitter.
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