Jan. 22, 2000
TEMPE, Ariz. -- California, featuring the fifth-ranked men's and women's swimming and diving teams in the country, held off upset bids by their counterparts from Arizona State Saturday at the Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley. On the men's side Cal prevailed 187-123 over the 12th-ranked Sun Devils, while the Bear women recorded a 202-107 win against #18 ASU.
For the second consecutive meet, the Arizona State men opened competition with a victory as its 200-yard medley relay squad of Pablo Abal, Adam Guzauskas, Simon MacDonald and Scott VonSchoff touched first in a time of 1:30.75. The Devils (2-5) extended their lead by sweeping the top three spots in 200 freestyle competition with freshman Anders Lyrbring (1:37.71) being followed by MacDonald (1:38.11) and sophomore Bo West (1:38.99). California would take top honors in the next nine races before freshman Atilla Czene won the 200 individual medley with an NCAA consideration mark of 1:50.00. The Bears (5-1) closed the meet with authority as its 200 free relay team set a new pool record at 1:19.90.
On the women's side, ASU (3-3) got a strong showing from senior Casey Murphy, who won two events. The co-captain recorded her best 1000 free performance of the season (10:10.23) and also touched first in 500 free competition (5:00.34). In a very fast heat of the 200 butterfly, sophomore Sarah Baham shattered her own school record set Friday against Stanford by over a second, clocking in at 1:58.70. Baham's time, which placed her second behind Cal's Joscelin Yeo (1:58.01), was well below the NCAA automatic qualifying standard. Among the Devils' other highlights was senior Carolyn Adel's NCAA consideration mark of 1:50.38 in the 200 freestyle, ASU's fastest time in the event this year. The road ahead does not get any easier for the Sun Devils, who will face the University of Texas in a meet at Tucson Jan. 28-29. The Texas men are currently ranked #1 nationally while the UT women check in at #12.