Los Angeles is known as a tough city to make it as an entertainer. As is turns out, it is also a difficult place to swim as the ASU swim and dive teams lost to Southern California and UCLA over the weekend.
The ASU women (1-2, 0-2 Pac-10) lost to No. 6 UCLA (7-1, 1-1) 168-132 Friday and to No. 9 USC (6-0, 1-1) 172-121 Saturday.
While the women were at UCLA, the ASU men (1-3, 0-1) defeated Cal State Bakersfield (4-1) 162-127 Friday before falling to No. 9 USC 186-107 Saturday.
The results may have been disappointing, but the coaches saw good things in their teams’ performances.
“Overall, it was a successful weekend,” ASU dive coach Mark Bradshaw said. “The girls did a really nice job, I was happy with what they did.”
The swim team was also pleased with their results.
“I thought it went pretty well,” senior Nolan Ruane said. “Our first day was really good.”
Ruane added that although they lost to USC, most people got the times they wanted and were happy with the meet.
A trio of ASU freshman stood out in the meets against UCLA and CSB on Friday as Hayden Thomas, Tristin Baxter, and Hailey Casper all came away with wins.
Baxter won the 1,000-yard freestyle by ten seconds with a time of 9:55.46 and the 500-yard freestyle in 4:49.22.
Casper’s 317.70 in the 3-meter dive was good enough for the win versus UCLA. Casper’s weekend got even better against USC when she also won the 3-meter with a 329.25, a personal best.
Thomas also won the 1,000-yard freestyle against UCLA as well as the 500-yard freestyle. Thomas barely won the 500-yard race as his time of 4:43.60 was just ahead of ASU freshman Karl Boscacci, who swam the race in 4:43.62.
Although he is just a freshman, Thomas has been impressive.
“He’s always been a really hard worker,” Ruane said of Thomas. “He’s been swimming really well the past few meets.”
Casper’s win at USC was not only important for herself, but for the team as well.
“For the first time in a long time, we actually won a diving event against USC in a dual meet,” Bradshaw said.
However, the male divers were not as successful.
The men took second, third and fourth on the 3-meter, but struggled on the 1-meter as USC took both first and second.
“We hadn’t been beat like that in a long time,” Bradshaw said.
Meanwhile, plenty of ASU juniors came away with individual wins against USC. Rebecca Ejdervik won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:02.99 while Jordyn Green won the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:14.73. Penelope Yamauchi won the 200-yard IM in just over two minutes.
Yutaro Yamashita also came away with a victory in the 100-yard butterfly as he finished in 52.06 seconds.
Reach the reporter at william.boor@asu.edu
