FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – With two near-school record relay times and a second-place men's diving finish, the Arizona State diving and women's swim teams started the 2017 Pac-12 championships on a high note.
Following the first day of competition, the Sun Devil women are currently in sixth place with 96 team points. Stanford leads the pack with 128, followed by Cal (112), and USC (108) in the top three. While men's diving also competes this week, their individual scores will be factored into the men's team scores at next week's men's swim championships.
The Sun Devils hope to carry Wednesday's momentum into day two on Thursday. Tomorrow's schedule is as follows with earlier events serving as preliminaries and finals starting at 5:45 pm MT/4:45 pm PT.
11:30 am MT/10:30 am PT: 500 Free (P), 200 IM (P), 50 Free (P)
1 pm MT/12 noon PT: Men's 3 Mtr (P)
3:15 pm MT/2:15 pm PT: Women's 1 Mtr (P)
5:45 pm MT/4:45 pm PT: Women's 1 Mtr
7 pm MT/6 pm PT: 50 Free, 200 IM, 50 Free, Men's 3 Mtr, 200 Free Relay
All results, live scoring, links to view all competition and more can be found HERE.
Women's Swimming
In the first swim event of the weekend ASU's A-team finished with a time of 1:37.67 in the 200 medley relay, good for an NCAA B-cut as well as the team's top time this season by almost two seconds.
In the same event, the Sun Devils' B-squad finished in 1:42.67, highlighted by a speedy 22.08 final leg for Claire Fisch to anchor the relay team.
"I'm very pleased with our swims tonight," head swim coach Bob Bowman said following the evening competition. "Our 200 medley relay was just off our school record and our 800 free relay was almost nine seconds faster than last year."
ASU's top relay team in the 800 free relay finished in 7:07.06, also an NCAA B-cut and good for a sixth place finish. The time was also over seven seconds faster than the Sun Devils' only other version of the event this season, at November's Art Adamson Invitational at Texas A&M.
Rewriting history, the 200 medley relay time was just .25 away from the ASU record, the fourth fastest time in school history, while the 800 free relay was the third fastest time in school history.
"We know we have a lot of work to do but we had great team energy tonight. I'm very proud of these ladies."
Diving
The men's prelims and finals in the 1 meter started diving competition for the weekend, with Youssef Selim and Heikki Makikallio each qualifying for the finals following the afternoon's preliminary dives.
Throughout the early dives in the evening's finals, the duo traded spots in the top three of the standings before an unfortunate turn of events happened for Makikallio.
"Heikki was diving beautifully and unfortunately slipped off the board and got zeros on one of his dives when he was standing in and around first or second place the entire time," said head diving coach Mark Bradshaw. "I'm very proud, though, he finished up extremely strong."
Makikallio would end with a seventh-place finish (307.65) while Selim (367.70) finished second in his first career Pac-12 championships.
Selim's score was a career-best for the freshman early in his collegiate career and the third highest in the event for ASU this season. Each diver also surpassed the qualifying standard for the men's 1 mtr dive.
"Youssef got on a roll in the finals and performed some very good dives and I'm very proud of him. The first time in this meet can be a little shocking as it's different, the atmosphere is different than a normal meet. He did a steady list of dives and earned a second-place finish."
Women's diving starts competition Thursday while the men will complete their second dive of the weekend.
"I'm proud of the boys, especially Youssef, at his first Pac-12 championships and look forward to the women's 1 meter and men's 3 meter dives tomorrow."
Following the first day of competition, the Sun Devil women are currently in sixth place with 96 team points. Stanford leads the pack with 128, followed by Cal (112), and USC (108) in the top three. While men's diving also competes this week, their individual scores will be factored into the men's team scores at next week's men's swim championships.
The Sun Devils hope to carry Wednesday's momentum into day two on Thursday. Tomorrow's schedule is as follows with earlier events serving as preliminaries and finals starting at 5:45 pm MT/4:45 pm PT.
11:30 am MT/10:30 am PT: 500 Free (P), 200 IM (P), 50 Free (P)
1 pm MT/12 noon PT: Men's 3 Mtr (P)
3:15 pm MT/2:15 pm PT: Women's 1 Mtr (P)
5:45 pm MT/4:45 pm PT: Women's 1 Mtr
7 pm MT/6 pm PT: 50 Free, 200 IM, 50 Free, Men's 3 Mtr, 200 Free Relay
All results, live scoring, links to view all competition and more can be found HERE.
Women's Swimming
In the first swim event of the weekend ASU's A-team finished with a time of 1:37.67 in the 200 medley relay, good for an NCAA B-cut as well as the team's top time this season by almost two seconds.
In the same event, the Sun Devils' B-squad finished in 1:42.67, highlighted by a speedy 22.08 final leg for Claire Fisch to anchor the relay team.
"I'm very pleased with our swims tonight," head swim coach Bob Bowman said following the evening competition. "Our 200 medley relay was just off our school record and our 800 free relay was almost nine seconds faster than last year."
ASU's top relay team in the 800 free relay finished in 7:07.06, also an NCAA B-cut and good for a sixth place finish. The time was also over seven seconds faster than the Sun Devils' only other version of the event this season, at November's Art Adamson Invitational at Texas A&M.
Rewriting history, the 200 medley relay time was just .25 away from the ASU record, the fourth fastest time in school history, while the 800 free relay was the third fastest time in school history.
"We know we have a lot of work to do but we had great team energy tonight. I'm very proud of these ladies."
Diving
The men's prelims and finals in the 1 meter started diving competition for the weekend, with Youssef Selim and Heikki Makikallio each qualifying for the finals following the afternoon's preliminary dives.
Throughout the early dives in the evening's finals, the duo traded spots in the top three of the standings before an unfortunate turn of events happened for Makikallio.
"Heikki was diving beautifully and unfortunately slipped off the board and got zeros on one of his dives when he was standing in and around first or second place the entire time," said head diving coach Mark Bradshaw. "I'm very proud, though, he finished up extremely strong."
Makikallio would end with a seventh-place finish (307.65) while Selim (367.70) finished second in his first career Pac-12 championships.
Selim's score was a career-best for the freshman early in his collegiate career and the third highest in the event for ASU this season. Each diver also surpassed the qualifying standard for the men's 1 mtr dive.
"Youssef got on a roll in the finals and performed some very good dives and I'm very proud of him. The first time in this meet can be a little shocking as it's different, the atmosphere is different than a normal meet. He did a steady list of dives and earned a second-place finish."
Women's diving starts competition Thursday while the men will complete their second dive of the weekend.
"I'm proud of the boys, especially Youssef, at his first Pac-12 championships and look forward to the women's 1 meter and men's 3 meter dives tomorrow."