ASU Swimming: Women lose home opener to Washington State

(Photo: Blake Benard/WCSN)

The Arizona State women’s swim team fell short tonight in its home-opening meet against Washington State.

The Sun Devils swam under the lights at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Complex for the home opener of the 2015-2016 season.

ASU started off strong. The Sun Devils took first place in the medley relay and followed it with a second and third place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Following that event, sophomore Kat Simonovic had a grueling schedule, swimming back-to-back events in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley. Simonovic won the 200-yard freestyle but got last place in the 200-yard IM.

“I was trying to give it my all because that is what it takes for the girl’s team,” Simonovic said. “I only had about 30 seconds to a minute to get back on the block. Although I didn’t swim as well as I wanted to, overcoming it mentally will help me get through it.”

Washington State took control of the meet when it took first, second and third place in the 200-yard butterfly. A few events later, it followed that strong performance with a first and second place finish in the 200-yard backstroke.

Despite a loss for ASU, a promising performance from the night came from junior Alysha Bush. Tonight, Bush won both her events in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle. She also recorded the fastest freestyle split in the medley relay.

“(It) Feels great to be getting faster each meet,” Bush said. “I will be faster when I am well rested, and there are a few little things I need to work on.”

Bush’s time in the 100-yard freestyle was 11 milliseconds off the B-cuts for the NCAA championships.

“She is great. She has been looking fantastic, and she improves in every meet,” ASU head coach Bob Bowman said. “She still has a lot more work to do. In training, she has made a lot of changes that we are seeing in meets, and that is a very good thing.”

This meet also marked the first home meet for Bowman. The new ASU head coach said he was impressed with the performance tonight, but also mentioned there is a lot of improvement to be made.

“Overall, I am pleased with our effort tonight, but clearly we have a lot of work to do,” Bowman said. “I know now what specifically we have to work on.”

ASU will host its next swim meet Saturday morning when it takes on UNLV.

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