TEMPE -- It's been 601 days since they last competed at home, but fans can see Bob Bowman's Sun Devils back in action during their annual Maroon & Gold Intrasquad meet on Friday, October 1, at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center.
The meet is set to begin at 3:00 p.m., with free admission offered to the public.
Ahead of one of the most anticipated seasons in program history, fans can get a glimpse of both new and old faces. They return 11 College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association All-Americans from a year ago while also touting a terrific class of freshmen.
"We're super excited," Bowman said. "I'm very excited to see this team compete. Some of the freshmen who didn't swim last year, all the new freshmen from this year, and to just kind of get the other guys back into the mindset of racing. I think it'll be really good."
Making their Sun Devil debuts include Léon Marchand and Jarod Arroyo, two who competed in the Tokyo Games this summer, plus David Schlicht, a transfer student from the University of Arizona who authored a fourth-place finish at the 400 IM of the NCAA Championships last spring.
Jarod Arroyo ?? Tokyo
— Sun Devil Swim/Dive (@ASUSwimDive) July 1, 2021
?? Arroyo will be swimming in the 200 IM and 400 IM for Puerto Rico in the 2021 Olympics! ??????#ForksUp x #O2V |#Olympics2021 pic.twitter.com/JVEirb90no
Newcomers Izabella Adame and Charli Brown are also set to make immediate impacts alongside Lindsay Looney and Emma Nordin, who were recently named to the USA 2021-22 National Team.
The meet will give Bowman and his staff a terrific opportunity to see how their student-athletes fare in certain events, as the beginning of the regular season nears and lineup decisions loom.
"We have 50 percent of the team as freshmen and red-shirt freshmen who we've never really seen race," associate head coach Rachel Stratton-Mills said. "It'll be nice to see where they are and see how the work has translated to racing."
After red-shirting the entire roster for the 2020-21 season, there are five classes of student-athletes within the program, from true freshmen to redshirt seniors. Each class has potential medal contenders at the Pac-12 Championship level and scoring potential at the NCAAs.
"It's not just one or two, it's pretty evenly spread out. I think when you start looking at the different classes, that's what we're excited about," he said.
The Sun Devils will begin their regular season two weeks after the intrasquad, with the women's team heading to Pullman, Washington, to square off against Washington State on October 16.
To stay up to date with the program all season, follow the team on Twitter @ASUSwimDive.