Jan. 25, 2002
BERKELEY, Calif. - Despite senior Gavin Meadows' two event wins, the No. 5 Arizona State (5-1) men's swimming and diving team fell 162-130 to No. 7 Cal (4-1) at Spieker Aquatics Center in Berkeley, Calif., Friday. It was the first loss of the season for the Sun Devil men.
Meadows won the 500-yard and 1000y freestyle events with respective times of 4:29.03 and 9:21.28, but the Sun Devils earned first-place points in only three other events, including the 200y free relay where they swam unopposed.
ASU's other win in the lanes was earned by sophomore Ahmed Hussein, who finished one-two with junior teammate Christian Harcsas in the 200y backstroke with times of 1:46.76 and 1:48.20. Hussein also placed second in the 100y back in 49.57, behind Cal's Alex Lim in 48.80.
The Sun Devils' only other victory was earned in the diving pool by sophomore Gordon Blukis. Accumulating a season-best score of 334.35, Blukis topped Cal's Nic Bartolotta (303.525) and teammate Thomas McCrummen (273.08) in the 3-meter springboard.
The competition doesn't get any easier for the Sun Devils tomorrow, when they meet No. 1 Stanford at Avery Aquatic Center. The men's meet is scheduled to follow the women's meet (noon) at 2:00 p.m. PST.