Feb. 21, 2000
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona State women's swimming team heads to Long Beach, Calif., for the 2000 Pacific-10 Conference Swimming Championships Feb. 24-26, where it hopes to improve upon a sixth-place showing from a year ago. Preliminaries at the Belmont Plaza will begin at 11:00 a.m. while finals commence at 6:00 p.m. PST each day. Meanwhile, the Sun Devil men's and women's divers are a few miles north at USC for the Pac-10 Diving Championships. The ASU women will combine their swimming and diving point totals to arrive at a team score.
Note the Format
This weekend's conference meet will be contested in short-course yards. Meets throughout the 1999-2000 season will use either the aforementioned format, short- course meters or long-course meters. The NCAA Championships this season are being held in a 25-meter pool, while the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney will utilize a 50-meter format.
Poll Position
The Arizona State women enter the Pac-10 Championships ranked 18th in the current College Swimming Coaches Association of America poll after beginning the season at #20. The Pac-10 is arguably the nation's strongest conference with four schools ranked amongst the top five. Arizona, Stanford, Cal and USC are in the second through fifth spots, respectively, behind top-ranked Georgia. UCLA, which lost to the Devils in November, checks in at #11.
Devils Seek to Increase NCAA Contingent
Three ASU women have already qualified for next month's NCAA Championships in four events, totals the Sun Devils will try to add to during the Pac-10's. Sophomore Sarah Baham has posted sub-NCAA times in both the 100 and 200 butterfly, including her school record 1:58.70 mark at Cal on Jan. 13. Sophomore Riley Mants and senior Carolyn Adel will take their shot at national titles in the 200 breast and 400 IM by virtue of their showings at the Texas Invitational. Adel, who won a bronze medal in the 400 IM at the 1999 Pan American Games, holds the top meters time in the country at 4:18.78. In addition, ASU swimmers have posted 13 times in 11 different events which will receive NCAA consideration. The Devils will have a final chance to qualify for Nationals at the Pac-10 Invitational on Sunday, Feb. 27, also in Long Beach.
Scouting the Sun Devil Divers
On the women's side, four Arizona State divers have recorded NCAA Zone qualifying scores, including senior Katrina Pfeuffer, a 1997 All-American who holds ASU's best marks in the one-meter, three-mteter and platform events. The squad is bolsterd by junior Trish Malatesta, who achieved Honorable Mention All-America status last season as a platform artist. All three Sun Devil men will participate in next month's NCAA Zone Championships. Junior Marc Briggs has ASU's top marks in all three disciplines, while senior Allan Sonkin placed third in platform competition at the 1999 Pac-10's before earning an NCAA Championship birth.
Head Coach Michael Chasson
Currently in his second season at ASU, Michael Chasson is the first head coach in school history to oversee both the men's and women's swim programs. In 1999, he guided Sun Devil men to a 16th place national showing, while the women finished 23rd at the NCAA Championships. Chasson came to Tempe with impressive credentials, having guided the Harvard men to six Eastern Seaboard Championships and four NCAA appearances. He is assisted at ASU by Victor Wales, Derigan Silver and Keri Buff. Matt Rose and Norbert Agh are the graduate assistant coaches.
Diving Coach Mark Bradshaw
Mark Bradshaw, a former U.S. Olympic team member, is in his third year as Arizona State's diving coach. Under his tutelage two Sun Devil divers have qualified for the NCAA Championships, with one earning All-America honors. Bradshaw spent the 1996-97 season at Ohio University, where he led the Bobcat women to a second place conference finish.
Pac-10 Three-Dot Data
Arizona sophomore Sarah Tolar is the fastest collegian this year in the 100 and 200 free ... Cal's Waen Minpraphal will try to defend her conference title in the 400 IM ... up-and-coming Oregon State has set 14 school records this season ... Misty Hyman, a Phoenix native, won the 100 and 200 fly at the 1999 Pac-10's and was a member of three championship relay teams for Stanford ... UCLA senior Keiko Price is undefeated this season in the 100 free and won the event at last year's conference meet ... freshman Michaela Kwasny has posted NCAA qualifying times in the 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 fly for USC ... Olympic trials qualifier Kristin Nagata owns Washington's top times in four events ... senior Erin Eldridge was Washington State's top finisher at the 1999 Pac-10's, placing third in the 100 breast ... Oregon is the only conference member not to field a women's swimming and diving program.
Looking Back at the Pac-10's
At the 1999 Pac-10 Championships in Federal Way, Wash., ASU placed sixth (634.5 points), matching its finish from 1998. Riley Mants notched the Devils' best individual finish with her 2:12.87, second-place showing in the 200 breast. Other top-10 performers for Arizona State included Casey Murphy, who finished sixth in the 1650 free in a time of 16:43.08, and Camilla Johansson, who's sixth-place, 1:58.96 showing in the 200 backstroke ranked her second all-time at ASU. In the diving portion, Trish Malatesta recorded ASU's highest finish by placing fourth in platform competition.
Pac-10 Championship History
Arizona State's highest finish at the Pac-10's came in 1994 when the Sun Devils placed second behind Stanford, which has won all 13 conference meets. Ten Devils have captured Pac-10 individual titles since the first Championships in 1987:
Year Athlete Event Mark 1995 Beata Kaszuba 100 Breast 1:01.61 1995 Beata Kaszuba 200 Breast 2:12.32 1995 Chris Jeffrey 500 Free 4:46.97 1995 Chris Jeffrey 400 IM 4:14.21 1994 Chris Jeffrey 400 IM 4:15.31 1994 Amy Palmer Platform Diving 257.55 1993 Beata Kaszuba 100 Breast 1:01.87 1993 Beata Kaszuba 200 Breast 2:13.04 1987 Tracy Cox 1-Meter Diving 439.25 1987 Tracy Cox 3-Meter Diving 480.45
On the Horizon
The Sun Devil men, ranked 11th, have their version of the Pac-10 Championships Mar. 2-4 in Federal Way, Wash. The following weekend ASU's divers are at the same venue for the NCAA Zone E Championships, where national championship births are on the line. March 16-18 the Arizona State women will be in Indianapolis, Ind., for the NCAA Championships.