Feb. 27, 2004
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Florencia Szigeti's outstanding season for the women's swimming team continued on Friday night as she claimed a Pac-10 title in the 200 freestyle at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. The junior All-American bettered her school record she set only hours earlier in the morning prelims by touching the wall in 1:46.46 to win the race by over a half a second.
Szigeti's first conference crown came after she clocked a 1:47.14 in the prelims to come into the evening as the No. 3 seed. The Argentine found herself in fifth at the 100m mark, but a dazzling final 100 powered her past the field to give the Sun Devils their first women's swimming conference title since ?gnes Kov?cs' league crown in the 200 breaststroke in 2002.
Senior Petra Banovic placed sixth in the 200 free with a season-best time of 1:47.99. Other Sun Devils in the 200 free included Amanda Gillespie (1:49.27) in 11th and Sandra Steffensen (1:51.26) in 21st.
Kov?cs turned in a great performance in the 100 breaststroke in a showdown between two of the top breaststrokers in the world. The junior All-American touched the wall in a season-best 1:00.56 to finish second behind Stanford's Tara Kirk. Also competing in the breaststroke for ASU were Christine Creek (1:04.42) in 15th and Courtney Caples (1:06.12) in 22nd.
In the night's opening event, the Sun Devils' Cara DeVinny placed eighth in the 400 IM in a personal best time of 4:17.79, a NCAA consideration time. Melissa Bartlett (4:22.81) placed 18th and Brianna Patterson finished 22nd (4:24.57) as the other ASU swimmers in the event.
Other Sun Devils competing on the night were Florence Mauro (55.88-12th) and Sarah Fischer (56.03-13th) in the 100 butterfly, and Erin Baldinger (55.93-11th) and Carissa Abe (58.11-16th) in the 100 backstroke.
The 400 medley relay of Baldinger, Kov?cs, Gillespie and Szigeti earned NCAA consideration with a fifth place finish and a time of 3:40.78.
The teams stands in fifth place with one day remaining on the schedule. The team scores are as follows:
Team Scores After Day 3 1 Stanford 952.5 2 UCLA 844 3 Arizona 821 4 California 740 5 Arizona State 642 6 USC 501 7 Washington 300 8 Oregon State 264.5 9 Washington St.196