The ASU women's swim team dropped their first home meet under new head coach Bob Bowman 115-90 to conference foe Washington State Thursday night.
However, ASU started the meet on a high note with a first place finish in the 200 yard medley relay.
The Sun Devils continued their momentum early on – they placed second and third in the 100 yard freestyle along with first place finishes in the 200 yard and 50 yard freestyle heats.
ASU junior Alysha Bush anchored the Sun Devils in a 200 yard medley relay victory and earned two victories of her own in the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard freestyle.
Bowman was impressed by her start.
"She has improved in every meet so far," Bowman said. "She is making some tweaks in practice that are showing up in her strong performances at the meets."
After the Sun Devils performed well in the first four heats, the Cougars took the lead and never gave it back. In the fifth heat the Cougars placed first, second and third earning them a total of sixteen points vaulting them to a three point lead overall heading into the break.
The Cougars continued their strong performance with a sweep of the top three places in the 6th heat earning them another sixteen points. ASU then countered as Bush finished first in the 7th heat giving the Sun Devils another nine points.
But the Cougars separated themselves by winning first and second place finishes in the 8th heat giving them another thirteen points towards the final score.
Freshman Jamie Friderichs won the ninth heat by a margin of .08 seconds. The Sun Devils headed into the tenth heat with hopes of pulling out a win, but the Cougars clinched an overall victory with a first and second place finish.
ASU head coach Bob Bowman said he was was proud of the leadership the upperclassmen showed Thursday night, but stressed there was plenty of room for improvement.
"We need to work on a lot of technical things such as tactics using the walls and maybe moving some people around to different events," Bowman said. "Overall, it gave me a clear view of the details we need to work on going forward."
The Sun Devils will look to bounce back against UNLV on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center in Tempe.
Reach the reporter at Graham.Paul@asu.edu or follow @GrahamASUpress on Twitter.
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