Devils in Dallas: ASU sweeps the SMU Classic

(Photo: Addie Russ/WCSN)

Arizona State swim and dive traveled to Dallas for the weekend in hopes of conquering the SMU Classic. Both the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams did just that.

The men’s team had never participated in this event before while the women’s team took part back in 2008, in which it finished sixth. As for the first instance meet where both teams swam in the meet, ASU swept away the competition by finishing first on both the men’s and women’s side.

The final scores for the six-team meet were as follows:

Women

ASU – 369
Arkansas – 310 (women’s team only)
SMU – 271
Missouri – 246
Virginia Tech – 238
Arizona – 228

Men

ASU – 324
Virginia Tech – 256
SMU – 234
Missouri – 229
Arizona – 183

The biggest highlight of the meet came from the women’s side of the pool. For the second straight week, second-year Albane Cachot broke her own 100 free school record at 47.12. The France native’s time also made a big splash past the Sun Devils as she now also holds the Big 12 record in that event.

Sticking with the same country, French swimmer Alexa Reyna won the 500 free with a time of 4:46.88. The fourth-year distance swimmer also won both the 1000 free and 500 free at ASU’s first meet of the year on Oct. 2 against UNLV.

A pair of third-year swimmers also helped the Sun Devils finish atop the leaderboard in Jordan Greber and Julia Ullmann. Greber took first place in the 200 individual medley and Ullmann took second in the 200 fly.

Going away from the experienced collegiate swimmers, first-year Alyssa Albertyn has already made an impact early on in her ASU career. Last week’s Big 12 newcomer of the week set a new personal record, winning the 200 back with a time of 1:54.68.

As for diving, women’s fourth-year diver Kayden Hayes placed fourth in 1m diving with a score of 222.70. Men’s fourth-year diver Mario Del Valle cannonballed his way to second place in 3m diving tallying a score of 367.20.

Going over to the waves of the men’s meet, fourth-year star swimmer Ilya Kharun took first in the 200 fly with a time of 1:40.75. In the event, the Canada native outdid all of his opponents by nearly four seconds.

From a familiar face in maroon and gold to an unfamiliar face, first-year Nathan Muratory took first place in the 200 back, clocking in at 1:39.77. The French swimmer also won the 100 back at 46.12 and improved upon both of his times from his first collegiate meet against UNLV.

Fourth-year James “JT” Ewing captured first place in the 200 individual medley, touching the wall at 1:45.79. Ewing also stood at the top of the leaderboard for the 400 individual medley finishing at 3:45.21.

A swimming quartet led to big points for ASU with two sets of Sun Devils finishing second and third in the 200 breast and 100 free. First-year Oliver Munn and fourth-year Filip Senc–Samardzic took two of the three podium spots in the 200 breast; Munn in second and Senc-Samardzic in third. The other half of the quartet was third-years Tolu Young, placed second, and Quin Seider, placed third, who matched the pitch of the other half leading to a joint high note for the meet.

For both the men’s and women’s teams, they took home a hypothetical gold in both the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay.

The meet does not count towards record, but more so as valuable experience competing against other impressive programs. Facing off against great teams will only make ASU more prepared for when they swim against the best of the best.

Next up the Sun Devils will encounter some déjà vu as they return back to the comforts of the desert to face off against SMU on Oct. 22. The women’s team will look to improve to 3-0 and the men’s team looks to add another win to go to 2-0.

ASU brought the heat to Dallas, but can the team maintain the same fiery stamina defending home water?