The Arizona State Sun Devils opened up their inaugural season under head coach Bob Bowman with impressive intrasquad showings from their distance swimmers and butterflyers.
Anna Olasz and Juan Tolosa combined to sweep the distance free races for the Gold teams. Olasz went 5:04.07 to win the women’s 500 free and Tolosa was 4:39.76 in taking the men’s race. Tolosa won the combined-gender 1000 in 9:35.61, and Olasz was the top female finisher, going 10:20.38 for third overall.
Also impressive were the butterflyers for the Gold team, which swept the 100 fly wins. Marina Spadoni crushed the women’s race in 56.13, winning by over four seconds. The men’s race was much closer, with Patrick Park topping Arizona transfer Andrew Porter 48.37 to 48.92.
That was enough to earn the Gold team a narrow 99-96 win on the men’s side. The women of the Maroon team managed to pull off a win on the other side, though, 90-78.
That’s because junior Alyssa Bush led a big sprint sweep for Maroon with two individual wins. Bush went 23.46 to dominate the 50 free, leading a 1-2 finish for Maroon, then came back to win the 100 free in a nice 50.76.
Bush also swam on the winning 200 medley relay for Maroon, which went 1:44.29, keying on a 25.79 leadoff leg from Ingibjorg Jonsdottir.
The Gold men won the 200 medley in 1:29.61, getting a 24.55 from breaststroker Thibaut Capitaine and a quick 20.90 from Tadas Duskinas on the fly leg.
Capitaine would go 55.23 to win the individual 100 breast later in the meet. The women’s race went to Gold’s Kaya Philapil in 1:05.56.
Freshman Kallyn Barkey led the Gold women to a 400 free relay win, anchoring in 51.74. Their team was 3:29.99, just a tenth up on Maroon. The Maroon men avenged the loss, though, going 3:02.19 on a 44.91 leadoff leg from Richard Bohus.
Bohus also won the individual 100 free in 44.94.
Other event winners:
- Heather McCorkel took the women’s 200 free in 1:52.10.
- The men’s race went to Barkley Perry, who was 1:40.26.
- Sophomore Keiser Witte took the men’s 50 free in 21.29.
- In one of the tightest races of the night, Kyle Sockwell defeated Juanjo Garcia for the 200 IM win, 1:54.83 to 1:54.89.
- The women’s event went to Cheyenne Degraff in 2:06.28.
Is Andrew Porter swimming for ASU this year? I thought he had to sit a year since he transferred within the conference?
Compliance – can’t say for sure if he HAS to sit a year, wasn’t released, etc., but when he announced his transfer, Andrew told us he would sit out the 2015-2016 season: http://swimswam.com/45-second-butterflier-andrew-porter-transferring-to-arizona-state/
sorry, but those distance free times are NOT impressive….
Early-season distance free times rarely are, when your aerobic threshold is way lower than it is around mid-season or championship season.
I noticed Duskinas at Worlds. He has an incredibly quick stroke tempo that is tailor-made for short course racing. I expect him to be a factor at the end of the year.