Jan. 26, 2013
Like Arizona State Swimming and Diving on Facebook:
TEMPE, Ariz.--
On a severely rainy day at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, the Arizona State swimming and diving program honored their seniors in the final co-ed dual meet of the season against the California Golden Bears in Tempe, Ariz. on Saturday. Surrounded by family and friends, head coaches Mark Bradshaw acknowledged the hard work and success the seniors demonstrated both in the pool and in the classroom.
Stanford eventually claimed the victory on both sides of the meet with a victory of 177-121 over the women and 163-126 over the men. While the Sun Devils didn’t get the win, there were several stand out performances that highlighted the meet.
On a day in their honor, the senior women picked up some key victories over Cal. Lizzy Luttrell earned the victory in the event with a time of 2:00.74.
Junior Tristin Baxter earned her second-straight victory of the weekend in the 1000 free finishing in a time of 10:04.41 over the Bears. Against Stanford on the previous day, Baxter swam a season-best 9:46.59 over Cardinal Andie Taylor. Baxter also took first in the 500 free with a time of 4:49.42.
Swimming in back-to-back meets, Alex Coci actually dropped a second from his 100 fly time. Coci swam the event in a time of 48.79, five tenths off an NCAA B-cut. Earlier in the meet, Coci also took first place in the 200 fly, edging out Cal’s Will Hamilton in the final lap of the race.
Competing in the 200 breast Thibaut Capitaine easily out-touched the field. Recording a time of 2:04.31, Capitaine made the race look easy by winning the event by a margin of three seconds.
While swimming competed in the lap pool, a real battle played itself out in the diving well. Although ASU was competing against Cal, it was Sun Devils Morgan Weller and Hailey Casper going dive for dive in the women’s 3-meter. On the previous day Weller, a freshman, broke the 3-meter dual record set by Natalie Burgess in 2001 against Stanford. In the inclement weather of the Cal match-up, Casper broke Weller’s record from Friday only to have the freshman come back and reclaim and set a new ASU record for the second-consecutive day with a score of 356.25.
Weller and Casper now hold the top-four scores in ASU history on the women’s 3-meter springboard, set in the span of two days. Bradshaw noted if Weller and Casper are competing this well in the weather they faced on Saturday, he can’t wait to see the two compete in indoor diving at Pac-12 Championships and beyond.
Harrison Jones claimed the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard titles, which has become almost routine for the senior. While Jones’ victories came down to tenths yesterday against Stanford’s Kristian Ipsen, the Sun Devil won each event by over 100 points between him and the next competitor.
Next up, the ASU women host NAU in a dual meet on Sat., Feb. 2 at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center in Tempe, Ariz.