By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The swimmers Bob Bowman talks to on the recruiting trail are arming him with a sense of his opponents' strategy.
"The first question they ask is 'how long are you going to stay at ASU?'" Bowman said. "Other schools are telling them I just came here to train Michael [Phelps] for the Olympics.
"I tell them, 'well, I just got here, and if I just wanted to train Michael for the Olympics I probably would have gone to the south of France."
Bowman was encouraged by the performance of the Sun Devils men's team last season, but he is feeling absolutely energized about both the men's and women's potential in years to come. He signed 15 student-athletes from nine states and Norway in his first full recruiting class last fall. With that wealth of young talent now in Tempe, plus a couple of transfers, he is setting much higher goals in his second year as coach of the program.
"I think the men are going to be competitive immediately," Bowman said. "We're still building numbers in the women's program although we still have some individuals I think will do pretty well.
"We want to perform better in the conference with both teams, but with the men we're looking to move toward the top of the conference and certainly in the top 20 teams in the nation -- maybe higher than that."
The most noted of the new men's swimmers are Michigan native Cameron Craig, Arizona product Ben Olszewski and Florida native Zach Poti.
Craig finished first in the 4x100 freestyle and medley relays and second in the 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Maui, Hawaii from Aug. 24-27 to earn a spot on the USA Swimming National Junior Team.
Olszewski is a freestyler from Scottsdale who has a 2016 Olympic Trials cut in the 400 freestyle. Poti is a backstroker and butterflier with four 2016 Olympic Trials time standards.
"We have this incredible class coming in, but we have virtually everyone returning and we also added two people who sat out last year in Andrew Porter and Thibaut Capitaine, both of whom will be NCAA scorers," Bowman said. "I feel like we've added quite a bit besides the freshman class. Our men's team is ready to take on some of these bigger schools and see where we stack up."
Porter is a graduate student who transferred from Arizona after the 2014-15 season. He specializes in the butterfly and IM.
"It's inspiring just to have such a high level of athlete walking around this school, and a high-level coach with so much international experience," he said. "To see Michael also settle down here is awesome, too. Once you've got Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps locked in and other athletes hear about it, they're going to want to come here."
Following the intrasquad meet on Oct. 7, ASU opens its men's and women's seasons on Oct. 21 at Utah. Bowman said that meet, along with a meet against BYU, the Denver dual meet on Oct. 29, and meets against USC (Nov. 4) and UCLA (Nov. 5) should give him a good read on his team's potential.
"Our attitude is very good, our work ethic is very good and everything is in place," he said. "The coaching staff knows everybody and we're much more organized in everything we're doing."
Bowman understands that it will take a little more time to build ASU into the national power he envisions, but the early returns have him confident that goal will be achieved.
"With the response we've gotten in recruiting, I think you will see steady improvement but I don't know how long it's going to take," he said. "We get disappointed when people turn us down, and I get really disappointed, but now people are turning us down to go to Texas or Cal. ASU wasn't even in the conversation with any of the top 10 teams before I got here. Now we're going down to the wire with the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the nation for these kids. That feels good.
"It can happen here and it is happening here. Every day we get a little bit better."
Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The swimmers Bob Bowman talks to on the recruiting trail are arming him with a sense of his opponents' strategy.
"The first question they ask is 'how long are you going to stay at ASU?'" Bowman said. "Other schools are telling them I just came here to train Michael [Phelps] for the Olympics.
"I tell them, 'well, I just got here, and if I just wanted to train Michael for the Olympics I probably would have gone to the south of France."
Bowman was encouraged by the performance of the Sun Devils men's team last season, but he is feeling absolutely energized about both the men's and women's potential in years to come. He signed 15 student-athletes from nine states and Norway in his first full recruiting class last fall. With that wealth of young talent now in Tempe, plus a couple of transfers, he is setting much higher goals in his second year as coach of the program.
"I think the men are going to be competitive immediately," Bowman said. "We're still building numbers in the women's program although we still have some individuals I think will do pretty well.
"We want to perform better in the conference with both teams, but with the men we're looking to move toward the top of the conference and certainly in the top 20 teams in the nation -- maybe higher than that."
The most noted of the new men's swimmers are Michigan native Cameron Craig, Arizona product Ben Olszewski and Florida native Zach Poti.
Craig finished first in the 4x100 freestyle and medley relays and second in the 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Maui, Hawaii from Aug. 24-27 to earn a spot on the USA Swimming National Junior Team.
Olszewski is a freestyler from Scottsdale who has a 2016 Olympic Trials cut in the 400 freestyle. Poti is a backstroker and butterflier with four 2016 Olympic Trials time standards.
"We have this incredible class coming in, but we have virtually everyone returning and we also added two people who sat out last year in Andrew Porter and Thibaut Capitaine, both of whom will be NCAA scorers," Bowman said. "I feel like we've added quite a bit besides the freshman class. Our men's team is ready to take on some of these bigger schools and see where we stack up."
Porter is a graduate student who transferred from Arizona after the 2014-15 season. He specializes in the butterfly and IM.
"It's inspiring just to have such a high level of athlete walking around this school, and a high-level coach with so much international experience," he said. "To see Michael also settle down here is awesome, too. Once you've got Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps locked in and other athletes hear about it, they're going to want to come here."
Following the intrasquad meet on Oct. 7, ASU opens its men's and women's seasons on Oct. 21 at Utah. Bowman said that meet, along with a meet against BYU, the Denver dual meet on Oct. 29, and meets against USC (Nov. 4) and UCLA (Nov. 5) should give him a good read on his team's potential.
"Our attitude is very good, our work ethic is very good and everything is in place," he said. "The coaching staff knows everybody and we're much more organized in everything we're doing."
Bowman understands that it will take a little more time to build ASU into the national power he envisions, but the early returns have him confident that goal will be achieved.
"With the response we've gotten in recruiting, I think you will see steady improvement but I don't know how long it's going to take," he said. "We get disappointed when people turn us down, and I get really disappointed, but now people are turning us down to go to Texas or Cal. ASU wasn't even in the conversation with any of the top 10 teams before I got here. Now we're going down to the wire with the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the nation for these kids. That feels good.
"It can happen here and it is happening here. Every day we get a little bit better."
Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter