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@ASUSwimDive Welcomes No. 1/4 Cal and No. 7/3 Stanford This Weekend

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@ASUSwimDive Welcomes No. 1/4 Cal and No. 7/3 Stanford This Weekend@ASUSwimDive Welcomes No. 1/4 Cal and No. 7/3 Stanford This Weekend
TEMPE, Ariz. – The Arizona State men's and women's swimming and diving squads finish up their 2018-19 home schedule this weekend, hosting No. 1/4 Cal and No. 7/3 Stanford on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The meets, representing the first competition for the Sun Devil men since the Indiana Invitational and Texas Diving Invitational in November, are set for 2 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday. The matchup on Saturday is also Senior Day for nine Sun Devils.

THIS WEEK
Fri., Jan. 25 – vs. No. 1/4 Cal (Tempe, Ariz.) 2 p.m. MST
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Sat., Jan. 26 – vs. No. 7/3 Stanford (Tempe, Ariz.) 12 p.m. MST
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HOW TO KEEP UP
  • The meet between the Sun Devils and the Bears and Cardinal will be live streamed on the ASU live stream. Fans can also follow the action the team's Twitter account, @ASUSwimDive or on Meet Mobile under "Arizona State vs. California" and "Arizona State vs. Stanford".

LAST TIME OUT
  • The Sun Devil men haven't competed since November at the Indiana Invitational where Zach Poti notched two podium finishes (first in 100BK, second in 200BK) while Danny Comforti took first in the 200BR, Ben Olszewski placed second in the 500FR and Grant House took second in the 200FR as the Sun Devils competed at the in Bloomington. In total, the Sun Devil men placed fourth with 1,128 points.
  • The women were back in action last week after winter training, taking a 174-85 win over Washington State. Three Sun Devils had multiple wins on the day, as Emma Nordin (1000 free, 200 back), Cierra Runge (100 back, 100 free) Chloe Isleta (100 back, 200 back), and Fanny Teijonsalo (50 free, 100 fly) each took the top spot in two events. For junior transfer Runge, her two victories came in her first two events as a Sun Devil.
  • Sun Devil Diving last competed at the Texas Diving Hall of Fame Invitational in November.  Ashley McCool (1M, 3M), Frida Kaellgren (1M), Youssef Selim (1M) and David Hoffer all made it to the final rounds in the invitational, with Kaellgren leading the way with a fourth place finish in the 1M.

QUICK FACTS
  • Gold medalist Olympian Cierra Runge made her Sun Devil debut in ASU's last competition against Washington State, winning two events (100 free, 200 free) and second place in the 500 free.
  • Sophomore Chloe Isleta looks to extend her dominance in backstroke events this season against the Bay Area schools. Isleta has taken the top time in seven of the nine dual meet backstroke events this season, only taking second in the 100 and 200 backstroke against USC. Isleta also placed sixth and eighth in the 100 and 200 back, respectively, at the Indiana Invitational in a field of 30 swimmers. She also has four of the top five times in the 100 and 200 back among the Sun Devils this season while placing two of those times on the top-10 in school history list.
  • The men now have 28 NCAA B-Cuts halfway through the season while the women have 19. All cuts were notched or improved upon at the Indiana Invitational, and the Sun Devils look to improve on these times as they reach the postseason.
 

BACK, BACK BACKIN' IT UP          

  • Zach Poti and Chloe Isleta have dominated the backstroke events halfway through this season. Isleta took top honors in both the 100 and 200 backstroke at Oregon State, Florida State, UCLA and Washington State, while Poti took first in both events at FSU and first in the 100 back and second in the 200 back at the Indiana Invitational.
  • The Sun Devil men also went 1-2 in the 100 and 200 backstroke at FSU, with Poti and freshman Khalil Fonder combining in the 100 back and Poti and Noah Henry in the 200 back. Fonder, Henry and fellow freshman Eddie Michael all participated in the final round of the 100 back last time out in Bloomington, while Henry and Jakob Icimsoy found themselves in the 200 back finals.

COMING OF AGE                       

  • After a freshman campaign that included an honorable mention All-American performance in the 800 free relay, sophomore Evan Carlson is coming into his own this season.
  • As the team's best sprinter this season, Carlson owns three of the top-five times in the 50 free this season, including putting up a team-best 19.76 at the Indiana Invitational. That time is good for top-50 in Division I swimming and 11th-best in the Pac-12 so far. Carlson put up the first NCAA B-Cut by a Sun Devil in his first meet of the season against Florida State. The sophomore has steadily improved his times with each meet this season and looks to continue his upward momentum in the second half of the season.


NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK          

  • Freshmen have had a nice showing this season, with many contributing points so far. 
  • Against USC, backstroker Khalil Fonder headlined a group of freshmen that totaled 35 points on the men's side, putting up 12 points on his own. Fonder sprinted to a first-place finish in the 100 butterfly – an event in which the Sun Devils entered only freshman – behind a time of 48.33 and followed up with a third-place finish in the 100 back. Fonder also contributed two ninth place finishes in Indiana in the 100 fly and 100 back.
  • Eight other freshman contributed points: Jack Little (1650FR, 500FR), Noah Henry (200FR, 200BK), Jack Edgemond (200FL), Cody Bybee (200FL), Ethan Luc (50FR, 100FR), Brandon Spencer (1M, 3M) and Jakob Icimsoy (200BK).
  • On the women's side, Ruby Martin has been a consistent cog in the butterfly stroke, placing top three in the 100 and 200FL at Florida State and UCLA, and first in the 100FL at Oregon State. Martin took first in the 200 fly against Washington State last week and second behind teammate Fanny Teijonsalo in the 100 fly.


ON THE WORLD STAGE                      

  • Freshman Ashley McCool represented her country in her native Calgary at the 2018 Canada Cup Grand Prix, earning silver in the 3M synchro ahead of the United States, Cuba and Germany. 
  • McCool added another medal to her collection at the Summer Speedo Nationals, putting up a score of of 283.10 in the finals to place third in the event and earn a bronze medal
  • Frida Kaellgren competed again in the 1M dive for her country at the Swedish National Championships, racking up her second-straight gold medal in the event to become a Swedish National Champion in the event. Kaellgren notched a gold medal in the same event in 2017 and a silver in the 3M dive as well.


HOMECOMING              

  • The Sun Devils added a new coach to the staff in the offseason -- #SunDevil4Life Herbie Behm.
  • Behm returns to Tempe after serving as the assistant sprints coach at the University of Utah for two seasons. During his tenure in Salt Lake, Behm led a group of 20+ student-athletes in their daily training programs while assisting and working with each individuals' technique, training strategies and post-race analysis. Under Behm's tutelage, 20 student-athletes set school records in just two seasons.
  • Behm, a Tucson-native, swam at Arizona State from 2010-13. Excelling in the classroom as well, Behm was a three-time Scholar-Athlete Award winner and graduated with his degree in Psychology while minoring in Communications. As a Sun Devil, Behm was a part of the foursome that set the school record in the 400 medley relay.
 

MEN NAMED NO. 5 CLASS IN NATION            

  • Boasting yet another exceptional recruiting class, the Sun Devil men's swimming program's 2018 haul was chosen as the No. 5 class in the nation, according to Swim Swam magazine's annual evaluation of NCAA Division I swimming classes.
  • The highly-touted Sun Devil class features 16 freshman and seven four-year university transfers spanning 12 states including Missouri, Ohio, Arizona, Virginia, Texas, Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York and one international student from Australia.
  • The class, recognized as one of the nation's largest signing groups, rose quickly through the rankings, as only one of the class' prospects broke the magazine's top-20 list in the summer of 2017. After huge senior campaigns, that number tripled to three.
  • The class boasts nine swimmers with 100 free times of 44.9 or better, five with 50 free bests of 20.3 or better and six with 200 free bests at 1:36.6 or better. This adds to an already strong crop of Sun Devil freestylers that includes Grant House, who put up the No. 24 time in the world during the 2017-18 season in the 200 free over the summer.


POWERHOUSE SCHEDULE                                  

  • This season, Arizona State will face last year's national champions on each side – Texas (men) and Stanford (women) – as well as two of the top five overall finishers at NCAA's a year ago.
  • During the dual season, the men's and women's teams also face seven top-25 teams to finish last season, including the top-ranked team for each. The men face No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Cal, No, 3 Indiana, No. 6 Texas, No. 9 USC, No. 18 Arizona while the women face those teams plus No. 21 UCLA.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS                        

  • The Sun Devils earned CSCAA Scholar All-America honors as a team, marking the 11th-consecutive semester dating back to Fall 2013 that both Sun Devil squads have earned a place in the team, while the ASU men have achieved upward improvement for the past three seasons. 17 individual Sun Devil swimmers and divers were also named Scholar All-Americans the last time the awards were given out in May 2018.