For the second week in a row, the ASU men's swim and dive team was in over its head.
In the wake of top-level competition, the Sun Devils fell 176-124 to the No. 8 Minnesota Golden Gophers at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center on Saturday.
The No. 23 Sun Devils spent most of the afternoon trailing the Big Ten squad, allowing Minnesota swimmers to finish first and second in nine of the 16 events.
"To win in dual meets in swimming you have to have every event covered, particularly sprints," ASU coach Michael Chasson said. "We have no true backstroke sprinter on our team."
That deficiency was obvious during the 100-yard backstroke event when the Gophers swept the top three positions and opened a 70-point lead.
"We swim one of the hardest schedules in the country and that's the way it is," Chasson said. "You just have to race tough."
Despite the team loss, ASU had several strong individual performances.
In the 1,000-yard freestyle event sophomore C.J. Nuess and freshman Gal Nevo finished first and second, respectively.
Nuess began the race trailing Minnesota senior Travis Beckerle but managed to outlast the competition and ultimately took first place by over two seconds. His 9:13.49 time marked his fastest of the season.
"Earlier this year I went out too fast and then died," Nuess said. "So I tried to take it easier so I had more left at the end."
Teammate Nevo made a strong charge in the final seconds of the event and passed Beckerle for second place during the last lap, finishing just 0.31 seconds ahead.
Nuess also finished first in the 400-yard individual medley, and Nevo repeated a second- place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.
"Individually we had some of our best swimmers do well and win events," Chasson said. "We had four or five guys that did outstanding, and that's probably going to be the story of our team this year."
The Sun Devils also received a boost from their dive team, led by senior All-American Joona Puhakka. The Finland native won the one-meter and three-meter dives, with ASU senior Brant Bingham finishing second in both events.
Puhakka's 426.80 and 434.77 scores in the dives gave him an average margin of victory of 120.76 points.
Other ASU first-place finishers included senior All-American David Kolozar, senior Joey Clements, and sophomore Lucas Azevedo. Sun Devil swimmers combined to finish first in seven of the 16 events.
"The reason we swim these guys is so that our swimmers have the best people to race," Chasson said. "C.J. Nuess raced their best guys and he won. David Kolozar and Gal Nevo also really stepped up."
The men's and women's swim and dive teams will travel to take on California and Stanford this Friday and Saturday.
Reach the reporter at steven.bohner@asu.edu.
