TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State swimming and diving team fell to the Trojans at home on Friday afternoon, with the men losing in a nail-biter 159-139 and the women falling 178-106.
Head coach Bob Bowman expressed being pleased with his team's performance against the now-No. 27 men and No. 16 women, especially the men's resiliency against a top team like USC. The only thing Bowman expressed is wanting a sense of consistency from his team across the board.
Wins were hard to come by for the Sun Devils to start the morning, as they earned just one in the first 11 events. The men's 200-yard medley relay of Reid Elliott, birthday-boy Christian Lorenz, Tadas Duskinas and Patrick Park clinched a victory with a time of 1:30.07.
In event 12, it was Park again bringing home nine points in the 200-yard butterfly with a "B Standard" qualifying time of 1:46.15 nearly two seconds faster than the standard. The sophomore earned another victory in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 45.13.
His relay teammate, Duskinas, picked up two big wins in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly for the Sun Devils as they tried to reel in the Trojans down the stretch.
Just before the men's 1-meter diving event -- with two swimming events remaining -- the ASU men were down just 14 points, trailing 129-115. Sophomore diver David Hoffer picked up a second-place finish with fellow sophomore teammate Heikki Makikallio right behind him in third for a total of seven points. The Trojan divers earned 11 to increase their lead to 18 points.
USC clinched the meet with first, second and fourth place finishes in the men's 200-yard individual medley to go up 155-126 with just the 200-yard freestyle relay to go. The Devils' team of Park, Duskinas, Perry and Elliott clinched the first-place finish in that event.
For the women, junior Alysha Bush -- who came in with six-straight victories between the 50- and 100-yard freestyles -- earned her first win of the day in the 50 free with a time of 23.13 to make it seven-straight. Four events later, that streak would come to an end as USC's Anika Apostalon made a "B Standard" time just over a second faster than Bush.
She would be the only female swimmer to tally a victory, but sophomore diver Mara Aiacoboae earned two victories for 18 points in the women's 1- and 3-meter diving events.
Junior Kat Simonovic finished the 100-yard butterly and the 200-yard freestyle in second place, missing the top spot by less than a second in each event.
Both Sun Devil teams will earn another chance at victory in front of the home crowd tomorrow at 12 p.m. The women will take on their third Pac-12 team already this season as they welcome UCLA, while the men host Air Force.