Since the ASU swim and dive program has its eye set to the Pac-12 and NCAAs in February and March, the Sun Devils’ first meet of a season was a positive way for the coaches and athletes to see what the teams can build on.
“The meet was very successful,” swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker said. “We had some people step up in some different events.
“We had an opportunity to see the women swim some events they normally wouldn’t.”
The women’s swim and dive team opened their season with a win against UNLV 197-100 on Saturday, while the men’s team fell to the Rebels, 178-116.
The very first event for the Sun Devils started the season off with a bang.
In the women’s 200-yard medley, ASU’s “A” team of junior Kelli Kyle, senior Rebecca Ejdervik, junior Caroline Kuczynski and junior Shannon Landgrebe immediately put itself in consideration for the NCAAs, finishing with a time of 1:42.20 and beating the NCAA “B” Standard time for the event by .2 seconds.
An athlete is eligible to compete in Nationals pending selection if he or she surpasses a “B” cut, and automatically qualifies if he or she reaches an “A” cut.
Ejdervik made another “B” cut in the 100-yard Breaststroke by .6 seconds, clocking at 1:02.38.
Later in the meet, Landgrebe collected two first-place finishes in the 50- and 200-yard Freestyle events.
Michigan transfer and junior Mattie Kukors made a sound first impression, placing first in the 200-yard IM and the 500-yard Freestyle, an event she would not normally compete in.
“It felt good in the first dual meet of the season (since) this was my first meet as a Devil,” Kukors said. “Fun to get out and race since we’ve been training hard for awhile.”
Tierney-Walker also praised Kuczynski for trying out different events outside of her specialty, as Kuczynski placed second the 200-yard IM.
While all of the first-place finishes in the women’s events came from ASU, UNLV had nearly the same success in the men’s division with a Rebel placing first in all but two events.
UNLV’s sophomore Cody Roberts, freshman Giacomo Gremizzi and junior Steven Nelms each picked up two first place finishes. Sophomores Hayden Thomas and David Adalsteinsson were the only two men to place first for ASU.
In diving, junior Constantin Blaha qualified to compete in the Zone E Championships for both the one-meter and three-meter diving events, receiving scores of 322.20 and 413.63, respectively.
Elina Eggers and Hailey Casper finished in the top two in that order over three UNLV divers. Eggers scored 303.83 in the three-meter and 299.78 in the one-meter, while Casper scored 294.98 and 279.23.
Notes:
The meet was delayed for approximately 12 minutes when a timing pad malfunction in lane four did not register Kuczynski’s time in the 100-yard Butterfly. Another pad in lane eight failed to record senior Yutaro Yamashita’s time in the same event for the men’s race, but did not cause a major interruption. The home officials said they hope to fix the pads in time for the Nov. 5 meet against Wisconsin.
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