Full meet results here. (no splits available from these results)
WOMEN’S MEET
Arizona 176.5-Arizona State 118.5
The highlight of the women’s meet came at the very end, as the #11 Wildcats put together a very impressive 200 free relay to qualify for NCAA’s. The squad of Taylor Schick, Bonnie Brandon, Katja Hajdinjak, and Paige Kremer was 1:30.74 at the Texas Invite, one of the midseason invites where many teams taper to some extent in order to grab NCAA cuts, which was off of the B cut of 1:30.17. Today, however,
Emma Schoettmer was a steamroller in the breaststrokers, as she took wins in both the 100 (1:00.34) and the 200 (2:11.66), eclipsing her previous season best of 1:00.54 from the Texas Invite. She also swam breast on the opening 200 medley relay, in which the Wildcats won in 1:38.63 to better their season best of 1:39.58 (also from the UT Invite).
The Wildcat women were having a great day, especially their sprinters. Schick and freshman Kremer touched 1-2 in the 50 free, with Schick (22.95) grabbing the win over Kremer (22.99). The two met again in the 100 free, and this time it was Kremer (49.53) over Schick (50.06).
Bonnie Brandon and freshman Cameron McHugh had impressive swims in the 200 back, as Brandon won it in 1:56.39 followed by McHugh (1:58.50). The Wildcats also went 1-2 in the 200 fly led by Elizabeth Pepper and charged to a 1-2-3-4 sweep in the 200 IM.
ASU hung tough, pushing for several wins despite Arizona’s depth. Most notably in the victory column were Kat Simonovic, who took the 200 free (1:47.13) by almost a full second, and Ingibjorg Jonsdottir had a stellar swim in the 100 back (52.96) to upend Brandon. The Sun Devils were also under 1:39 in the opening 200 medley relay, but they were edged by the Wildcats by a slim margin of seven hundredths. Arizona ended up on top, 176.5-118.5.
MEN’S MEET
Arizona 174-Arizona State 117
The Arizona men, tied for 18th in the country, started things off with sparks flying after their 200 medley relay. Finishing in a very quick time of 1:26.91, the relay featured senior Brad Tandy who absolutely scorched the anchor leg in 18.99. Granted, there have been pictures from the meet posted to Twitter and every swimmer looked to be suited, but that’s a fantastic swim for Tandy pre-championships season. He followed that up with a 19.89 in the individual 50 to take that event for the Wildcats.
Kevin Cordes, who has been upset in the recent weeks in his signature breaststroke, took home firsts in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. His 100 was much more impressive, as he posted a 53.52 for the win after usually being in the 54 range this year. He was 1:58.44 in the 200 version of that event for the victory, which is right around what he’s been going in the last few weeks.
Other notable wins for the Wildcat men came in the 200 fly and 200 free. Michael Meyer took the fly in a quick 1:45.84, while it was Thane Maudslien who won the 200 free (1:37.38) by mere tenths over ASU’s Thomaz Martins (1:37.54) and Barkley Perry (1:37.64).
Among a couple other Sun Devil wins, Richard Bohus took both the 100 free (44.34) and the 100 back (48.33). His 100 free was impressive, as he took down not only Arizona’s Brian Stevens (44.60) but also Tandy (45.09). The Wildcats took the meet on their Senior Day, 174-117.
WHAT’S NEXT?
After this dominating performance over ASU, the Wildcats will prepare for the 2015 Pac-12 Championships. The women’s champs begin February 25th, while the men’s begin a week later, on March 4th.
How dare you Swimswam! Using all the information you have to give as accurate a report as possible? Maybe the Arizona state twitter account wasn’t doing as good of a job with updates but you should have been able to guess what was going on.
Tandy 18.99 is right on the mark. Noticed Utah’s Soedel split 19.1 against Utah in that slow pool and also 19.74 flat start. That might be a real battle at PAC 12’s.
The Devils are in the details!!