ASU Swimming: Sun Devils kick off second half of season with a women’s loss and men’s win

(Photo: WCSN/Blake Benard)

After missing the first half of the season, Richard Bohus had quite a homecoming Saturday against Wyoming.

Arizona State started the second half of their swim season Saturday afternoon. Following six weeks of training, the Sun Devils faced the Wyoming Cowboys and Cowgirls in a nonconference dual meet to test the results of their training. In the end, the Sun Devils put up a great fight with the men winning 152.5 to 145.5, but the women fell short to the Cowgirls 152 to 146

Despite the team not having a meet since November, the men came out the gate strong after their training. In the first four events, ASU took first place with dominant performances from Patrick Park, Juan Tolosa and Barkely Perry. However the best performance of the day came from senior Richard Bohus who returned today after missing the first half of the season after breaking both his arms and getting wrist surgery.

“I got a lot of confidence back,” Bohus said. “I swim well in practice, but when you get back and swim other people in a dual meet, it gives you a lot of confidence.”

Bohus took first place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 49.15, and followed that with another first place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.78. However Bohus’s day ended on a bad note when his 4 x 100 freestyle relay team was disqualified for a false start.

“It just happens,” Bohus said. “We are going to have small mistakes, and it is so much better when it happens in a dual meet so we can go back and fix it.”

On the women’s side, the two teams went back and forth all day. Wyoming won the medley, but ASU bounced back quickly with wins in the 1000-yard and 200-yard freestyle. Junior Anna Olasz was the star of the women’s team with two key wins in the 1000-yd and 500-yd freestyle

“I think we did pretty good,” Olasz said. “I had a very good meet. I am very satisfied with my results, especially in the 500 free.”

Before the last break, the ASU women had a four point lead over Wyoming, but the Cowgirls took command of the meet when they placed first, second, and third in the 100-yard butterfly.

“We just focus on the next event,” Olasz said. “Everyone did their best but unfortunately we could not win today.”

Arizona State is entering the busiest part of their schedule. They will continue their dive into the second half the season next week when they travel to the bay area to face California and Stanford.