(Photo via Xavier Litman/WCSN)
On Saturday, the No. 1-ranked Arizona State Men’s Swim team faced off against No. 2 California Berkley for the Sun Devils’ second meet in a row at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. ASU Women’s Swim also welcomed No. 11 ranked California for their second meet of the weekend.
Both Sun Devil squads captured wins on Saturday, with the Golden Bears’ men (4-1, 2-1) falling 211-87 to ASU (6-1, 3-0) and ASU’s women earning their second win of the season by a score of 191.5-96.5.
Following the meet, ASU head coach Bob Bowman expressed pride for how his Sun Devils performed.
“We raced super hard to our standard,” Bowman said. “Even when the races weren’t necessarily close, we still swam fast. That was our goal. We had a very good day yesterday and wanted to swim as fast or better today.”
Similarly to Friday’s win over No. 12 Stanford, many ASU swimmers on the men’s side had successful days in the pool.
Adding onto his phenomenal sophomore season, Léon Marchand had a record-breaking day. Once again, he dominated in the 100-yard breaststroke, setting a new ASU school record with a time of 51.01 seconds. Following that performance, Marchand proceeded to set a new NCAA record in the 400 IM, where he finished with a time of 3:31.84, surpassing last year’s NCAA national champion and previous record holder, Cal graduate student Hugo González.
Marchand also secured another individual victory in In the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:48.82. In the 200 medley relay, ASU earned first place with a time of 1:22.77, thanks to Marchand, junior Jack Dolan, fifth-year Max McCusker and graduate student Grant House.
Additional accomplishments on the men’s side include freshman Zalan Sarkany’s 1000 freestyle win in 8:50.25 and House’s 1:31.84 takeover in the 200 freestyle.
Bouncing back from a loss to No. 3 Stanford on Friday, the ASU women’s team (2-7, 2-3) earned their first win of the new year over the No. 11-ranked Golden Bears (5-1, 3-1) on Saturday.
The women’s team also excelled In the individual races. Freshman Katherine Randall triumphantly took first place in the 1000 freestyle, winning with a time of 9:50.14, more than 20 seconds faster than the nearest competitor. In the 100 freestyle, ASU dominated the leaderboard with junior Molly Batchelor placing first (49.44), sophomore Erin Milligan coming in second (49.48) and freshman Ieva Maluka taking third (49.56) to complete the sweep.
Additionally, sophomore Charli Brown’s first-place finish in the 400 IM (4:11.05) and junior Lindsey Looney’s victory in the 200 freestyle (1:45.65) helped boost the Sun Devils ahead of California.
With just one meet left in the season for both ASU teams before Pac-12 Swimming and Diving Championships in Washington, Bowman is making sure his team focuses on the little things and continues to improve with each race.
“I want everyone to go faster than this week, and I think we will,” Bowman said. “We’re on track to do that. We’re trying a little something different this year with the team, and we’ll see how it plays out. So far I’m very happy. They have worked extremely hard, and we’re looking forward to all of them being faster.”
