(Photo: Alli Cline/WCSN)
On the last day of competition in Mansfield Texas, the Arizona State men continued to dominate in the pool and earn enough overall points to win the Art Adamson Invitational. ASU scored 969.5 points while Texas A&M took 2nd with 917.5 points. The women finished in 4th place overall, scoring 390 points.
The Sun Devil men asserted themselves all weekend. Saturday was the final day of competion and after sitting in third place last night, ASU won two out of the four individual events and the only relay offered on the night. The women did not win any events, but had four appearances in “A” finals.
“I think the team overachieved the expectation that we have set up before this meet,” Richard Bohus said. “We didn’t taper or shave for this championship so that actually shows how much improvement and progression we made over the last couple months of hard training.”
Bohus was the unsung hero of ASU this weekend. After breaking school records on both the 400-yard medley relay and 100-yard backstroke, he broke another school record tonight in the 200-yard backstroke, which is an event he does not normally swim. His time of 1:41.34 grabbed him first place in the event. Barkley Perry finished in second with a 1:42.90 and Zachary Poti came in 4th with a 1:44.90.
The men’s dominance was insurmountable all day. ASU captured three top-8 finishes in the 1650-yard freestyle during the afternoon. Later that evening, Arizona State would qualify four swimmers into the “A” final of the 100-yard freestyle, and send four more men into the “A” final of the 200-yard breastroke. Freshman Ben Olszewski finished second in the distance event with a time of 15:23.56, while Cameron Craig took second place in the 100-yard freestlye. Christian Lorenz would take third in the breastroke with times of 1:56.77.
“You can’t even imagine how proud I am of this team,” Bohus said. “Everybody did their very best in order to make this team go forward and get better. We cheered for each other. We raced for each other, and we cared for each other. It’s been a lot of fun.”
To top off the night, the Sun Devils won the 400-freestyle relay in 2:53.33, which is the second fastest time in school history, and 1.01 seconds off the school record. The “B” relay took fourth place in a time of 2:57.28 while the “C” relay took 11th with a time of 3:02.86.
On the women’s side, Chloe Isleta, Kat Simonovic and Alysha Bush all made “A” finals on the final night of competition, while Anna Olasz and Bentley Hulshof both had top-8 finishes in the 1650-yard freestyle.
“As a captain, I am extremely proud of how the team came together to perform this weekend,” Simonovic said. “We had several best times and with it being the midpoint of the season, it is certainly a visual representation of where we stand competitively as a team.”
Simonovic came in fourth place in the 100-yard freestyle, a put up the fifth fastest time in school history with a performance of 49.41 seconds. Bush finished in eighth place in a solid time of 49.94.
Anna Olasz finished fourth in the 1650-yard freestyle in a time of 16:37.79, while freshman Bentley Hulshof came in eighth with a time of 16:54.11.
Isleta took seventh place in the 200-yard backstroke, going a time of 1:59.57. Ingibjorg Jonsdottir swam in the “C” final and finished 19th overall with a time of 2:01.47.
The Sun Devil women got fourth place in the 400-freestyle relay with a time of 3:18.58. Simonovic led off the relay with a time of 49.38, .03 seconds faster than she went in the individual 100-yard freestyle. The “B” relay came in 14th place in a time of 3:27.46.
“I’m sure coach can vouch for the swimming aspect of it but from a captain’s point of view, there is so much more going on here than results can illustrate,” Simonovic said. “Both programs have come such a long way. What ASU Swimming is currently going through is really tough to put into perspective for the public.
The Sun Devil men continued to impress with a victory and will surely look to potentially move up in the national rankings The women swam a solid meet but have some things to improve on as they move into the latter part of the season.
As an athlete who is part of this team, I can tell you that there is something special about this journey and we can all sense it,” Simonovic said. “I’ve spent four years at this school and have never felt this way about being part of a team. We are all going somewhere and it’s evident that we are no longer the only ones who can sense that.”
Both teams will continue their momentum in the next dual meet against Northern Arizona University on December 16th. That meet will mark the end of the first half of the season.
