The ASU swim and dive team suffered its first loss of the season Saturday, losing to USC. While the ASU women's team lost at 176.5-123.5, the men's team came up just short at 153-147.
"To be competitive with them, my first year here we weren't winning any events in anything, so it's kinda nice to be competitive and start to move in that direction," head coach Bob Bowman said.
In the first event of the meet, USC's relay groups took first and second for the women's 400 yard medley relay.
The USC Trojans controlled the women's side partly with USC junior breaststroke specialist Riley Scott, who won the women's 100 yard breaststroke. Scott also came in first in the women's 200 yard breaststroke and the women's 200 individual medley.
ASU senior swimmer Christian Lorenz had three wins Saturday – he won the the men's 100 and 200 yard breaststroke and swam as a member of the first place mens 400 yard medley relay with a time of 3:13.21.
During the men's 200 yard freestyle, sophomore Cameron Craig was trailing USC's redshirt senior Dylan Carter until the final lap where he came back to win an extremely tight race.
Some bright spots for the ASU women's team included the women's 200 backstroke, which featured a Sun Devil sweep where sophomore Chloe Isleta, junior Marlies Ross, and freshman Camryn Curry finished first, second and third, respectively.
In the last event of the meet, sophomore Cameron Craig, senior Patrick Park, freshman Evan Carlson and graduate swimmer Reid Elliot won the men's 200 yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:20.25. However, it wasn't enough to outscore the Trojans.
"We are a real team. Every time we have one of these meets, we are getting closer to where we want to be," Bowman said. "We have to take the small lessons that everybody gets from their races and to bring them to practice Monday."
On Saturday, it was just the women's team that competed against the Bruins. The Sun Devils dominated throughout the meet, defeating the Bruins 189-111, the first victory over UCLA since 2011.
"We raced so well, and they are very tired," head coach Bob Bowman said. "Not just one good race ... but we were good through the whole meet, and that's what I take away from that. I love that."
For the Sun Devils, sophomores Chloe Isleta and Silja Kansakoski each won two events individually and swam together during the women's 200 yard medley relay, which finished first.
The Sun Devils would sweep twice in the 100 breaststroke and the 500 freestyle. In the 100 breaststroke, Kansakoski, Ross, and junior Kaya Philapil won first, second and third, respectively.
The ASU women's team now sits at 3-1 on the season.
The ASU swim and dive women's team will now look to make NCAA cuts in the Art Adamson Invitational at Texas A&M on Nov. 16.
"We just want to go to Texas A&M and see some significant improvement from what they have done so far," Bowman said. "We're very young and figuring it out, and they are doing such a great job – I think lot of it because their attitude and group dynamic."
Reach the reporter at nsheehy@asu.edu or follow @nsheehy_nick on Twitter.
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