ASU senior swimmer Ashley Evans will be graduating in May with a degree in kinesiology. She is looking forward to the final moments of her swimming career and still plans to accomplish a lot in the next few months.
Her best time for the 200-yard individual medley is 2:00.95 and 4:21.18 for the 400-yard IM. For the 100-yard breaststroke, her best time is 1:02.40, and 2:15.46 for the 200-yard breaststroke.
State Press: What has been your favorite part of swimming at ASU?
Ashley Evans: This year has been my favorite year. We had a brand new coaching staff. Everything changed a lot. There has been a lot more energy.
SP: How do you feel you’ve developed as an athlete throughout your time at ASU, and specifically this year as a senior?
AE: I think I’ve basically just matured. I’ve learned how to deal with different things, — the disappointments, the things that come with working so hard for a couple of minutes at the end of the season. I used to get down about things a lot more, but I realized I’m coming to the end of my career so I might as well enjoy it.
SP: What are some of your favorite memories from swimming at ASU?
AE: One of my favorites is when we beat USC in a dual meet, the first time [we beat them] in seven or eight years. It came down to winning the 200 IM and the final relay to beat them, and I won the 200 IM and our women’s relay won at the end.
The other one is this year when we had the new coaches come in. Things changed a lot for us quickly and they were really beating us into shape. We had this crazy workout for three hours of swimming back and forth. We sang the fight song while doing wall-sits. It was pouring rain. It was all dramatic. At the end, we did our cheer for our team. It was just funny that it was like a movie scene.
SP: Do you have any other memories of ASU that stand out?
AE: On my recruiting trip here, we did the Lantern Walk up “A” mountain and Lisa Love, the athletic director, was up there and she was yelling about the ASU football record and she started yelling. She said something like “Let’s set this mountain on fire with spirit,” and they set fireworks off and some bushes actually caught on fire. The mountain started catching on fire and they were trying to get fire trucks up and people down.
SP: Which event is harder for you, the breaststroke or the IM?
AE: IM is definitely the most difficult for me because in all four strokes, you have to some way perfect them, when most people only focus on one or two things. It’s difficult to make the transitions in practice from working on one thing to another so quickly.
SP: What are your top accomplishments at ASU?
AE: I haven’t accomplished everything that I’ve wanted to accomplish yet, but my biggest accomplishment is sticking with it even though I haven’t gotten there yet. I strongly believe that with the help I’ve gotten this year, I will finally get where I want to be and end my career the way I want.
SP: What are your goals for the rest of the season?
AE: I want to place top-eight at [the] PAC-10 [Championships], and I want to qualify for [the] NCAA [Championships]. I would really love to place top-16.
SP: How has this season prepared you for achieving those goals?
AE: It’s so much more difficult this year, the practices. The expectations are way higher all around — the way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you swim and the way you do in the classroom. The bar is so much higher than it has been in the past few years. Learning to do everything in my life at that level, not just swimming, has really helped me.
SP: What do you want to do when you graduate?
AE: I’m going to nursing school.
SP: Do you like other sports?
AE: I love watching football games. It takes up my entire weekends in the fall semester.
SP: Do you have any hobbies or any other talents?
AE: I recently started cooking a year ago. I like to cook different things. I like to mix it up a lot. I made cheeseburger soup the other night. It had ground beef, potatoes, ketchup and cheese. I hadn’t heard of it until a few days ago.
SP: What will you miss most about being part of ASU’s swim team?
AE: I’ll miss having all these people around me all the time. You’re with these people two to five hours a day, if not more. They’re friendships I can’t see myself without, so I’m nervous to move back to the East Coast.
SP: How are you going to be ready for Pac-10s?
AE: I feel like I’m on the right path. I have certain goals that I’m working toward, and if nothing changes I’ll be fine.
Reach the reporter at nklauss@asu.edu
