TEMPE, Ariz. – At a team meeting back in August, in which Bob Bowman and his staff met with their new group for the first time of the school year, the eighth-year head coach didn't mince words on the potential of these 2022-23 Sun Devils.
It is, he guaranteed, the most talented group assembled in Tempe since his hiring in April 2015.
There are plenty of reasons for unbridled excitement these days inside the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, where the Men’s team is fresh off a top-six finish at NCAAs, the Women’s team owns an important mix of young and veteran talent and the diving program is fully stocked once again.
“It took a while to build the culture we want, to attract the people we want, but since then,” Bowman said, “we have been able to rapidly build our roster and I think we can contend for a title at some point.”
The new season will officially commence on Friday, September 23, when the team hosts its annual Maroon & Gold meet at 3 p.m. at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center.
If you’re not failing, you’re not learning.@coach_bowman says it best here: pic.twitter.com/auuy9eTN4a
— Sun Devil Swim/Dive (@ASUSwimDive) August 21, 2022
MAROON & GOLD
Friday’s Maroon & Gold meet will feature a pentathlon format, in which every swimmer will participate in all five events – the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle and individual medley.
The dive team will simultaneously be participating, as well, via an open-practice setting.
The event is free to the public.
ON THE DOCKET IN ‘22-23
The fun will have just begun once Friday hits and the team welcomes fans back to Mona Plummer for their intrasquad. The following week, both teams are off to Atlanta to meet Georgia on September 30 and Missouri on October 1.
The first regular season home action will come in late October, when they host Wisconsin.
A trip to the Golden State to meet two Pac-12 foes in USC and UCLA (Women’s team only) in early November gives way to the NC State Invite to wrap up the calendar year.
It should be yet another exciting trip to Greensboro for the invitational – which is held November 17-19 – after the Sun Devils broke 10 school records there a season ago.
A total of four home meets will be packed into January – Stanford, California and Arizona for both teams plus the Women’s-only contest against Washington State.
February 4 is the regular season finale against Arizona in Tempe before the attention turns to the postseason.
The full Men’s and Women’s 2022-23 schedule can be found here.
NEW FACES
Twenty-six total new faces have joined the program – 14 with the Men’s team and 12 with the Women’s squad. Furthermore, four belong to the diving team, marking the first time since the 2018-19 season that both Men’s and Women’s dive will be represented.
Four are new transfers and all swimmers – Laura Garcia (Houston), Daniel Matheson (USC), Max McCusker (Florida State) and Jack Wadsworth (Ithaca).
When asked where his team may be in a better position now versus this time last year, Bowman pointed to the additions of these transfers, including Matheson and Wadsworth, who can add to what this team lacked a season ago.
“[Matheson] had a great summer here training and swam very well at the US Nationals, so we’re excited about him,” Bowman said. “He’s going to really add to our distance program, which I think we really need to improve.
Wadsworth, in a breakout 2021-22 season at Ithaca, set a Division III record in the 100 back. Bowman identified the backstroke as an event where his team needed to improve – so enter Wadsworth, a Division III National Champion and a two-time All-American.
“We have people in every event at a pretty decent level, and some at a very high level,” Bowman said. “I think we’re just deeper and we cover all the bases.”
Associate head coach Rachel Stratton-Mills has been wowed by the efforts of freshmen Ieva Maluka and Izzy Krantzcke in the early going. Maluka raced in the 100 and 200 free at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 and Krantzcke was the No. 9 ranked recruit coming out of Texas in the class of 2022.
“Just doing amazing things,” Stratton-Mills said. “Freshmen are leading lanes from the first week. It’s really exciting.”
DIVERS
It’s been several years, but when the Sun Devils open their season on September 30 in Atlanta, they’ll do so with a roster of six divers – a welcome sight for second-year head coach Marc Briggs.
Briggs brought on two transfers last season at the start of the spring semester in Zachory Lundgren and Thomas Wesche, and both are back this fall.
The program has a trio of freshmen in Caleb Liban, Lane Stallworth and Amayah Wiley. Briggs also brought in a walk-on in Ashlyn Kirsch, a current junior who’s had years of diving experience under her belt.
Briggs said he’s been pleased with each diver’s progression to begin the school year, but it has been especially impactful having Lundgren and Wesche back.
“Not only them, but for our freshmen,” Briggs said. “To have that experience, to be able to tell them what to expect going into competition and how it works in the college world [is beneficial].”
Two weeks until our Maroon & Gold meet and we’re officially flipping out 😈 pic.twitter.com/aGc0YJliEJ
— Sun Devil Swim/Dive (@ASUSwimDive) September 9, 2022
RETURNERS WHO HAVE IMPRESSED
While the more than two-dozen newcomers have garnered much excitement and attention, the Sun Devils still have a potent supporting cast who return from a year ago.
Of the 13 Sun Devils who earned All-American honors at last year’s NCAAs, 10 are back this season.
Stratton-Mills says Lindsay Looney and Jadé Foelske, who are captaining the Women’s team, “are looking amazing already.”
Looney, of course, was sensational this summer at the Phillips 66 National Championships in Irvine, in which she went 2:07.25 in the 200m fly for a second-place finish. In September, she and Dylan Gravley were the two Sun Devils to be selected to the USA Swimming National Team roster
Patrick Sammon, coming off a season in which he was one of two true freshmen for the Sun Devils to compete at the NCAA Championships, became the 18-and-under champion in the 200 free at the National Championships.
Bowman also praised the summer David Schlicht had, after he qualified to represent Australia at the World Short Course Championships.
Grant House, after a dominant 2021-22, helped USA Swimming defeat Australia in the mid-August Duel in the Pool in Sydney.
LÈON MARCHAND
And speaking of returners who’ve caught the collective eye of the coaching staff, it was Léon Marchand who put the entire world on notice with the summer he had.
The rising sophomore became a two-time FINA World Champion in June, winning both the 200 IM and 400 IM. His time of 4:04.28 in the 400 IM is now a European record and good for the second-fastest performance ever
At the same World Championships, he broke the 200 fly French record at the FINA World to win silver at 1:53.37. He also set a new French record in the 200 IM with his time of 1:55.22. This ferocious stretch earned him the FINA World Championships’ Swimmer of the Meet honors.
Weeks later, he crushed the 200m breast French record at the Spanish Championships (2:08.76), marking his fourth national record of the summer.
This is all after he lit the swimming world ablaze throughout his freshman year in Tempe. A few bullet points from that torrid rookie year:
- Two-time NCAA Champion in the 200 IM and 200 breast (set an NCAA record in the 200 IM with his time of 1:37.69)
- Named the CSCAA's Men's Swimmer of the Year in 2021-22 and was a CSCAA First-Team All-American in seven events
- Named the Swimmer of the Meet at his first Pac-12 Championships in 2022, winning the 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 breast and 800 free relay
- Named the Pac-12 Freshman & Men's Swimmer of the Year in 2021-22
- Set ASU school records in the 200 breast, 200 IM and 400 IM and was a member of four relay groups that set new program records (200 free relay, 400 free relay, 800 free relay and 400 medley relay)
Full notes and numbers from Marchand’s rookie year.
One week until World Champion @leon_marchand is back to doing his thing in Tempe.
— Sun Devil Swim/Dive (@ASUSwimDive) September 16, 2022
Don’t want to miss it 🔥pic.twitter.com/t8hiMMTRmd
WHAT THE COACHES ARE SAYING
Bowman on how his team is in a better position now versus a season ago: “We really don’t even have a weakness now. Last year, like at backstroke, we hardly had anybody to swim … We have people in every event at a pretty decent level, and some at a very high level. I think we’re just deeper and we cover all the bases.”
Stratton-Mills on the current state of the Women’s team: “We have the personnel to have the absolute best Women’s team that we’ve had. That’s exciting to see. We have people in all the events. Looking at relay lineups, we have multiple options. It’s something we haven’t had. We have the personnel to just see the ASU women have an outstanding year, better than what we’ve seen. It’s really exciting.”
Briggs on what his team is capable of this season: “We’re getting into things right now, but to get some finalists at Pac-12 [Championships] is obviously a goal of ours, and I think we should have a few this year.”