(Photo: Ross Leviton/WCSN)
The ASU men’s and women’s swim teams will travel to the Bay Area this weekend to take on two of the best teams in the country: Stanford and California. Both schools are at the center of the collegiate swimming world, and their reputations allow them to recruit the best talent in the country.
“We would love to have the consistent performance as those programs,” head coach Bob Bowman said. “I think this is a good opportunity to race those teams and get a feel for what it is like real time to swim at that level–to see how they go about their business like how they warm up and how they support each other.”
The history of the two schools can intimidate any opponent.
Cal has won nine national championships and has produced many Olympians such as Natalie Coughlin, Missy Franklin and Nathan Adrian. Stanford has won 15 national championships thanks to Olympians like Pablo Morales, Janet Evans and Jenny Thompson.
While historical pedigree will likely have no bearing on the outcome this weekend, ASU may have a hard time racing these teams because of the talent Cal and Stanford have. Stanford’s men’s team is led by top-of-the-line talent, featuring Ryan Dudzinksi in the 100-yard backstroke and Gray Umbach in the individual medley. The Golden Bears meanwhile are loaded with Olympic hopefuls Ryan Murphy, Justin Lynch and Josh Prenot.
The return of ASU star backstroker Richard Bohus, however, adds to the talent of Patrick Park and Tadas Duskinas, giving the Sun Devils a chance for some fast races.
“They’ve trained well this week and hopefully they will swim faster than they did last week,” Bowman said. “That is really the goal… and I think if they do that they are going to be happy regardless of what place they may or may not come in.”
The women are also facing a difficult challenge. Last week, ASU lost a tightly contested meet to Wyoming. With a squad of only 17 swimmers, most of them have to swim multiple events to at least give the Sun Devils a chance to win. This weekend, they will be tested against some of the top female swimmers in the country.
“I think they’ll put up some better times than they have done,” Bowman said. “I don’t how they’ll stack up against Cal and Stanford, to be realistic, but I do think we are making progress. This will be good preparation for the Pac-12’s and the Arizona dual meet coming up.”
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