Sept. 30, 2003
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State University swimming and diving season is set to get underway on Friday afternoon October 3, with the annual Maroon and Gold Intrasquad meet at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. Events are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. with only the swimming teams taking part in the action at this season's meet.
The intrasquad meet calls for the men and women to each have one maroon team and one gold team. The men's maroon team competes against the men's gold team and likewise for the women. Men's captains Nick Brunelli and Wiley Wallace select the men's squads while women's captains Melissa Bartlett and Florence Mauro pick the women's lineup.
Brunelli is one of the headliners of this year's Sun Devil program, which features several student-athletes with possibilities of making strong runs at the NCAAs and next summer's Olympic Games. Brunelli (USA) earned a gold medal at this past summer's Pan Am Games in the 400m medley relay, while Ahmed Hussein (Egypt) and David Kolozar (Hungary) each put in strong performances at the World Championships. Men's diver Joona Puhakka (Finland), who won't be in action this season until later in October, earned a bronze medal this summer at the World Championships in the 1m springboard after winning the NCAA title in that event last spring.
On the women's side, ?gnes Kov?cs (Hungary), the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 200m breaststroke, made another strong showing at the top international level this summer, placing sixth at the World Championships in the 200m IM. Florencia Szigeti (Argentina) earned a silver medal in the 100m freestyle at the Pan Am Games in August while setting a South American record, and Petra Banovic (Croatia) also turned in solid swims at the World Championships this summer.
The events for the Maroon and Gold meet are as follows, with women's events preceding men's:
400 medley relay
1000 freestyle
200 freestyle
50 freestyle
200 IM
200 butterfly
100 freestyle
200 backstroke
500 freestyle
200 breaststroke
400 freestyle relay