Despite competing with a young and inexperienced roster, the ASU men’s swim team finished fifth at the Pac-10 Championships in Seattle.
The Sun Devils were happy with their performance and view the good results as foreshadowing for the 2012 season.
“We were all pretty happy with [the meet],” ASU freshman Hayden Thomas said. “All the guys on the team did really well, especially when you consider how young we are. It’s a good forecast [for] how we are going to do next season.”
Thomas, who was competing in his first ever Pac-10 Championships, earned an NCAA consideration time in the 1650 freestyle as he clocked in at 15 minutes 58.75 seconds. Sophomore Caleb Veazy also recorded a consideration time in the 1650 and finished in 11th.
The atmosphere at championship events is always different than at regular meets and the environment was a motivating factor, Thomas said.
“It was super exciting to be there,” Thomas said. “The level of competition was super high and it got me really motivated to swim fast.”
Sun Devil senior Nolan Ruane was also pleased with the outcome of the meet.
“We did really well this year,” Ruane said. “Everyone performed better than last season; it was a good weekend.”
The Sun Devils were able to beat a few teams, something Ruane said was a nice touch.
“We beat Santa Barbara and Cal Poly so it was nice to beat those teams,” Ruane said.
Ruane took part in two separate relay teams that both earned NCAA consideration times for the Sun Devils.
ASU freshman David Adalsteinsson, junior Jesper Akesson, junior Yutaro Yamashita and Ruane finished fifth in the 200 medley relay with an NCAA consideration time of 1:29.59.
Yamashita and Ruane were joined by freshman Daniel Jurgs and junior Akesson in the 400 freestyle relay, which also earned a consideration time with a sixth place finish.
The Sun Devils had some noteworthy individual performances, in addition to the relay teams.
ASU had a pair of swimmers perform well in the freestyle as Veazy finished 17th in the 500 and Akesson finished 24th in the 50 freestyle.
While the Sun Devils were pleased with their performance, the Stanford Cardinals are thrilled with theirs.
For an unprecedented 30th straight year, the Cardinal won the men’s Pac-10 championships.
“They train the entire season to win Pac-10’s,” Ruane said. “It’s almost like they care more about the 30 year streak than they do about the [national] championships.”
Reach the reporter at william.boor@asu.edu
