March 26, 2004
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - Arizona State diver Joona Puhakka continued his outstanding sophomore season on Friday night by winning the NCAA Championship on the 3-meter springboard. He becomes the only athlete in the history of the men's swimming and diving program to win two national championships in a career as the 3m crown follows the 1m title he brought home in 2003 as a freshman.
The Sun Devils as a team stand in a tie for 16th place with 52 points with one day of competition remaining at the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships.
After a third-place finish yesterday in the 1-meter at the Nassau County Aquatic Center, Puhakka finished the 3m morning preliminary session as the number one seed and did not relinquish control of the top spot. The Finn totaled a score of 647.30 to claim the victory by over 13 points. Puhakka's season on the 1m and 3m springboards saw him win every competition but two during the course of the year.
In other action during the final round on Friday night, the Sun Devils' 800m freestyle relay foursome of senior Nick Brunelli (1:46.93), junior Jeff Barrett (1:48.98), senior Ahmed Hussein (1:50.44) and sophomore David Kolozar (1:49.25) placed 12th overall with a time of 7:15.60.
Competition at the meet concludes tomorrow with the 1500m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, 400m freestyle relay and platform diving.
AFTER DAY 21) AUBURN 435 18) KENTUCKY 51 2) STANFORD 248.5 19) VIRGINIA 48.5 3) TEXAS 246 20) LOUISIANA STATE 37 4) ARIZONA 225 21) MIAMI (FLORIDA) 26 5) MICHIGAN 197 22) S.M.U. 22 6) FLORIDA 177 23) WYOMING 16 7) CAL. BERKELEY 170.5 24) IOWA 14 8) TENNESSEE 125 24) HAWAII 14 9) NORTHWESTERN 93 26) OHIO STATE 13 10) MINNESOTA 82 27) NORTH CAROLINA 11 11) GEORGIA 81.5 28) NAVY 8 12) TEXAS A&M 76 29) WASHINGTON 7 13) WISCONSIN 67 30) PITTSBURGH 6 14) SOUTHERN CAL. 65 31) HARVARD 4 15) INDIANA 59 32) ALABAMA 3 16) SOUTH CAROLINA 52 33) PURDUE 1 16) ARIZONA STATE 52