Going against an Olympic Bronze medalist in Stanford sophomore Kristian Ipsen is a difficult task, but ASU senior diver Harrison Jones stood up to the challenge Friday.
Jones swept both the one-meter and three-meter competitions with scores of 413.78 and 397.58, respectively. The three-meter dive came down to a tenth of a point between Jones and second-place Ipsen.
Diving coach Mark Bradshaw praised Jones for his consistency.
“Someone’s got to win," Bradshaw said. "Harrison wasn’t on his game for three-meter, so just to squeak out a win for him is pretty cool. The thing about Harrison is he’s just so consistent.”
On the women’s side, freshman Morgan Weller and junior Hailey Casper both stood out yet again. Weller and Casper finished one-two on the three-meter dive with scores of 350.25 and 345.15, both good enough to break the ASU record of 341.40.
“Oh, they dove awesome, best in all my years here,” Bradshaw said. “Hailey just qualified for team Canada to compete in a grand prix event in Madrid in two weeks so that was a huge step for her, so she’s diving with confidence and that showed today.”
Stanford routs ASU in swim
Stanford came out and showed why it has the defending Pac-12 men's swim champions on Friday at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center in Tempe.
The Cardinal controlled both the men and women’s side throughout the meet to beat the Sun Devils, with the men’s score being 171.5-113.5 and the women’s 125-110.
ASU swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker was impressed with the depth of the Stanford men, but was content with how her men performed.
“I thought the men fought really hard," Tierney-Walker said. "They were ready to compete today against a very good team. I thought top to bottom even fighting for that third, fourth and the fifth spot down the line, the men did a really nice job.”
After dropping the first race of the day to the Cardinal, ASU junior Hayden Thomas took first place in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:27.38, edging out second place by only .27 seconds.
In the men’s only other win on the day, ASU freshman Thibaut Capitaine finished first in the 100-yard breaststroke in 56.31.
The Sun Devil women fought hard all day long but just couldn’t get over the hump. Being disqualified for the first relay race in which they placed second didn’t help the team’s standings, Tierney-Walker said.
“I think the women started off okay," Tierney-Walker said. "The win was sort of deflated after the relay (disqualified). But we saw some individuals step up and do a nice job. I think we are going to talk about maintaining more energy throughout tomorrow and competing at an even higher level on day two.”
The Sun Devils are back in the water tomorrow when they take on No. 3 California at 1 p.m.
Reach the reporter at ross.dunham@asu.edu
