(Photo: Alli Cline/WCSN)
Following a rough day at the Pac-12 championships yesterday, the Arizona State men’s swim team needed to bounce with strong performances today. That is exactly what happened when three school records went down in the 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breastroke and 400-yard medley relay.
“I kind of challenged the guys to step up in the morning and see what kind of things they can do,” Coach Bob Bowman said. “Then we had to carry that momentum into the night. That is how these meets work. College swimming in general, particularly college men’s swimming, is all about momentum.”
Momentum is what they didn’t have yesterday when no swimmer made the finals for their events. Today was a different story with much better swims.
After failing to make the championship final in the 50-yard freestlye last night, junior Tadas Duskinas came back strong in his premiere event- the 100 yard butterfly. In the morning, the Lithuanian international qualified seventh and was placed in the outside lane for the finals. Later that night Duskinas missed the podium by two one-hundredths of a second. He finished fourth with a time of 46.13
The records were the moment to build on for ASU. In the 100-yard backstroke, Richard Bohus came out fast with a strong qualifying time that put him in the championship final. Despite Bohus saying he didn’t feel well that morning, he came out strong in the finals for a record time of 46.49 and a fourth place finish.
The next record came from sophomore Christian Lorenz in the 100-yard breastroke. After just making the finals in the morning swims, Lorenz swam strong by finishing sixth place and breaking his record with a time of 53.10.
Bohus, Lorenz and Duskinas joined Barkley Perry for the 400-yard medley relay. After a long day of swimming for all of these swimmers, they joined forces for a strong relay that landed them fifth place with a new school record of 3:08.78
“We just had a little better focus,” Bowman said. “Everything was better. It was better team energy and we also had a better event program.”
Tomorrow is the last day of the meet. ASU moved up one spot to fifth place and tomorrow, they will feature their top swimmers for one final day. Perry and Patrick Park will swim their best events, the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard butterfly. Duskinas and Bohus will attempt to qualify in the finals for the 100-yard freestyle sprint event, and Lorenz will swim the 200 yard breastroke- an event that has him ranked 15th in the nation.
You can contact Ryan by emailing him at recurry@asu.edu or follow him on twitter @ryancurry25
