ASU Swim and Dive was a tale of two teams against Bay Area foes

(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)

For the second year in a row, Arizona State’s swim and dive team travelled to California to face former Pac-12 Conference members Cal Berkeley and Stanford in a tri-meet on October 25 at Cal’s Spieker Aquatic Complex, where the men’s team defeated two top-ten ranked teams in Berkley.

The No. 5 Sun Devils men’s team dominated the No. 4 Golden Bears 198-134 and the No. 8 Cardinal 204-134. The Sun Devils won the tri-meet without Olympian Ilya Kharun, who was swimming in Toronto for the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup. Kharun won the 200-meter butterfly in 1:49.17.

The men’s 200-yard freestyle relay team finished first and second, with the first-place team displaying their superiority, turning in the fastest times in the country at 1:15.52 and 1:15.71.

The men’s 50-yard freestyle was a clean sweep for the Sun Devils. Adam Chaney had a great start from the blocks in his heat. The graduate transfer from Florida needed only seven strokes in his first 25 yards. Chaney then turned and pushed off the bulkhead to sprint to first at a time of 18.98.

Graduate Remi Fabiani took second place at 19.05 in the same race, while sophomore Tolu Young swam 19.15 in the next heat to give three Sun Devils a podium finish.

Junior Filip Senc–Samardzic won the 100-yard butterfly in 45.84 in the second heat, but it was the first heat that stunned the competition. Senior Tommy Palmer persevered and pulled an upset, winning his heat in the last 25 yards of the race. The first three lengths of the race had Palmer at third, but at the last turn, Palmer swam his best 25-yard split, touching the wall first in 45.92.

Another impressive one-two finish came in the men’s 200-yard individual medley, where graduate Jordan Tiffany and junior JT Ewing finished first and second. Tiffany took the lead in the third stroke of the race, excelling in the breaststroke. Ewing swam hard in the freestyle portion to get more points for the team in the penultimate event.

The women’s team wasn’t able to shine victoriously in the rain, losing to No. 3 Stanford 233-105 and No. 9 Cal 233-107. ASU came back from a large deficit the previous day at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. ASU was down 139-57 to Stanford and 132-66 to Cal.

The women’s team finished second in the 200-yard individual medley relay and freshman Alexia Sotomayor placed third in the 200-yard backstroke. The 200-yard freestyle relay team also finished third at 1:30.28.

Sotomayor’s 1:56.72 finish was the lone time ASU got on the podium with an individual swimmer. The race was an exhibition for the future of women’s backstroke. Cal’s freshman Teagan O’Dell showed her stamina in the long race, having more than five yards between her and second-place Stanford senior Natalie Mannion. By the time Sotomayor flipped at the bulkhead for the last 25 yards, O’Dell was halfway to finishing with more than three seconds between her and Mannion.

The men’s team will compete against another familiar former conference opponent next month, when it hosts USC in Tempe on November 8. The women’s team will get back to action a day earlier, facing UCLA on November 7 at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center before joining the men’s team the following day to swim against the Trojans.