A gloomy day couldn’t stop the ASU diving team from performing at a high level Saturday.
Freshman Morgan Weller beat her own ASU record she set on Friday in the three-meter dive with a 356.25 mark, topping Friday’s dives by six points. If it weren’t for Weller beating her, junior Hailey Casper would hold the three-meter record with the score she tallied on Saturday, 353.25.
Dive coach Mark Bradshaw said toughing it out in that type of weather just makes it easier come time for championship season.
“In my sixteen years (of coaching), this is a first," Bradshaw said. "I mean we’ve had some bad weather but not continually downpour of rain. But like I said before, if you can dive in this you can do it anywhere.”
Senior diver Harrison Jones picked up where he left off, again sweeping both the one-meter and three-meter dives beating his next competitors by more than 100 points in each event.
“He’s that far ahead of all the competition that we’ve really gone up against, with the exception of Ipsen,” Bradshaw said. “So it’s not a real surprise that he’s winning.”
Swimmers Lose to California
In the second meet of the weekend, the Sun Devils were defeated by the defending NCAA champion California.
The Golden Bears started strong and didn’t look back, beating the ASU men 163-126 and the No. 20 women 177-121.
Before the meet started, the ASU seniors were recognized for their dedication to the program with some nice words from swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker.
“This is a unique senior class because they were freshmen when I was a freshman here,” Tierney-Walker said. “The women have put this team into a position where we are close to being top-ten, and for the men, I think we are heading into perennial top-20.”
Multiple athletes turned in solid performances for the Sun Devils despite coming out on the short end of the decision.
On the women’s side, junior Tristin Baxter topped off her weekend with two more long distance swim wins, turning in times of 10:04.41 in the 1000 free and 4:49.42 in the 500 free.
For the men, freshman Thibaut Capitaine continued his improvement and placed first in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:04.31, easily beating second place by three seconds.
This was the last home dual meet of the season for the men's team.
Looking forward, Tierney-Walker said the little details are more important than ever for her swimmers.
“This is the time of year that it’s really focused on attention to detail and we are done with the high-end training and the beat down stuff,” she said. “This is the fun time of year.”
ASU’s next competition is on Feb. 2 when the women take on NAU.
Reach the reporter at ross.dunham@asu.edu
