March 10, 2004
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This Week
The Arizona State men's and women's diving teams head to Oklahoma City, Okla. March 11-13 for the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships. Qualifiers from the meet move on to their respective NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
Sophomore All-American Joona Puhakka, juniors Gordon Blukis and Thomas McCrummen and sophomore Brant Bingham will represent the Sun Devil men while junior All-American Trisha Tumlinson, senior Jessica Stenson and freshman Cassidy Farwell are representing the women at the Oklahoma City Community College Aquatic Center.
The Polls
In the final dual meet poll released by the CSCAA for the 2003-04 season, the ASU men are ranked 15th while the women are ranked 22nd. For the complete poll, see the full version of this release or visit www.cscaa.org.
Diving Turns In Outstanding Pac-10 Meet
The men's and women's diving teams had a brilliant week at the Pac-10 Diving Championships February 26-28, in Federal Way, Wash., winning four Pac-10 titles altogether.
On the men's side, sophomore All-American Joona Puhakka swept the springboard events for the second year running, claiming the 1m (381.20) and 3m (674.75) in dominating fashion. His 3m score beat his own school record by almost 25 points. He placed 11th on platform (398.25) on the final day. Also competing for the men were junior Gordon Blukis (7th-1m-272.05; 7th-3m-497.80; 6th-platform-414.85), junior Thomas McCrummen (10th-1m-266.30; 10th-3m-463.25; 8th-platform-403.80) and sophomore Brant Bingham (14th-1m-244.85; 15th-3m-396.05; 17th-platform-271.15).
For the women, junior All-American Trisha Tumlinson won both the 3m (520.95) and the platform (433.65) titles to become the first Sun Devil female diver since Tracy Cox in 1987 to win two conference crowns in the same year. Tumlinson also placed fourth on the 1m (278.90). Also competing for the women were senior Jessica Stenson (8th-1m-244.50; 10th-3m-404.70; 7th-platform-328.20), freshman Cassidy Farwell (14th-1m-209.55; 16th-3m-343.20; 11th-platform-308.75) and junior Nicole Zukowski (23rd-1m-162.20; 18th-3m-339.05; 17th-platform-264.20).
Men, Last Week at the Pac-10s
The Arizona State men's swimming team finished the 2004 Pac-10 Championships in 5th place with 407 points after competition at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif., March 3-6. Senior All-American Nick Brunelli led the team during his final conference championship, turning in great performances all week, highlighted by winning the Pac-10 title in the 200 freestyle. Brunelli's time of 1:35.26 is a career-best and is the men's first conference swimming title since 2000. Brunelli placed second in the 100 freestyle, touching the wall in 43.12 to notch his fastest time of the year and also placed fourth in the 50 freestyle (19.71).
In the 100 backstroke senior All-American Ahmed Hussein placed fifth with a time of 48.03 and he finished seventh in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:46.38. Sophomore All-American David Kolozar earned a fourth-place finish in the 200 butterfly with a season-best time of 1:45.75 while junior Emerson Ward placed eighth in the 100 breaststroke (54.92) after clocking a 54.58 in the prelims to record the second-fastest time in ASU history.
Puhakka Fifth At Diving World Cup
In a meet featuring the best divers in the world, Arizona State's Joona Puhakka placed fifth on the 3-meter springboard February 20 while competing for his native Finland at the FINA Diving World Cup at the Olympic Aquatic Center in Athens, Greece. The sophomore hit all six of his dives in the final round to score a 680.13, a career-best. Puhakka showed his poise after narrowly making the final round with a 12th-place finish in the semifinals. The fifth-place showing marks his highest finish ever on the 3m in an international meet and the score all but assures him a spot on Finland's Olympic roster.
Six Women's Swimmers Qualified For NCAAs
The Sun Devils will be sending six women's swimmers to the NCAA Championships March 18-20 in College Station, Texas. Senior All-American Petra Banovic, junior Cara DeVinny, junior All-American ?gnes Kov?cs and junior All-American Florencia Szigeti return to the national championships while sophomore Erin Baldinger and freshman Amanda Gillespie are making their first trip. ASU is qualified in the 400 free (Banovic), 200 IM (Kov?cs), 50 free (Szigeti, Baldinger), 400 IM (DeVinny), 200 free (Szigeti, Banovic, Gillespie), 100 breast (Kov?cs), 100 back (Baldinger), 100 free (Szigeti, Banovic), 200 breast (Kov?cs) and the 400 medley relay. The entire women's official psyche sheet can be viewed on the web by clicking here to access Texas A&M's official list.