Dec. 10, 2002
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The 20th-ranked Arizona State women's swimming and diving team finished the Texas Invitational in fifth-place after totaling 419 points over the three day event last weekend. The women registered several excellent performances on their way to setting five school records. Two records were broken by diver Trisha Tumlinson, one by sprinter Claire Hedenskog, one by ?gnes Kov?cs, and the final record was a relay event. Kov?cs also became only the second woman ever to swim the 100 breast in under a minute outside of the NCAA Championships.
Swimming
Sophomore All-American Kov?cs got a fast start to the Invitational on Thursday by blowing away the Arizona State school record in the 200 IM, setting a new mark at 1:58.13. She beat the old record by over two seconds and became the first woman in school history to swim the 200 IM in under two minutes. She earned an NCAA "A" time on her way to a second-place finish in that event. Carolyn Adel held the previous record of 2:00.29 that was set in 2000.
On Friday, Kov?cs recorded a 59.92 in the 100 breast to earn the only first-place finish for a Sun Devil swimmer during the three-day meet. With this swim, she also became just the second ASU women's swimmer ever to swim a sub-minute 100 breast. She is now twenty-one hundredths of a second off of fellow Hungarian Beata Kaszuba's school record. Kov?cs was noticeably absent from the 200 breast on Saturday, an event in which she holds the Texas Invitational record of 2:07.98 that she set last year as a freshman. She left this year's meet early to fly to Germany to compete in the European Short Course Championships.
Senior All-American Hedenskog broke her own ASU record in the 50 free on Thursday, by setting a new mark at 23.10, lowering her NCAA "B" time and finishing third in the race. Her preliminary time in the 100 free of 50.49 on Saturday lowered her season-best NCAA "B" time. Her 50.89 in the finals netted her eighth place.
Junior transfer Petra Banovic had a breakout weekend and now finds herself leading the Sun Devils in four events and placed herself in the ASU all-time top ten in three events. She got things rolling on Thursday by recording a 4:50.78 in the 500 free, earning sixth place and registering an NCAA "B" time in her first opportunity swimming this distance as a Sun Devil. Also on Thursday, she recorded a "B" time in the 200 IM (2:03.70) preliminaries, where she recorded the second-fastest time by a Sun Devil this year, behind Kov?cs.
On Friday, Banovic improved her 200 free time (1:48.70) by over two seconds, to earn NCAA consideration and finish fifth. This time vaulted her into the ASU record books at sixth all-time. She was not done here, as Saturday saw her get into the Sun Devil record books in two events. Her 200 back time (2:01.28) was good enough for seventh all-time at ASU, and her opening leg of the 400 free relay (50.59) placed her sixth in the all-time top ten for the 100 free. Banovic came into the meet leading the Sun Devils in the 200 fly (2:06.24), an event in which ASU did not compete at the Texas Invitational.
Sophomore All-American Florencia Szigeti notched three NCAA "B" times in freestyle events over the weekend. In the 50 on Thursday, she clocked a 23.41 to place her 12th and also propel herself into the Sun Devil record books at fifth all time in this event. The same day, she touched the wall in the first leg of the 400 medley relay in 56.87, good enough for the fastest 100 back time that a Sun Devil has recorded this year, but the only time she recorded on the weekend that wasn't fast enough for NCAA consideration.
On Friday in the 200 free, Szigeti registered a 1:49.06, good enough for tenth. In the 100 free on Saturday, Szigeti swam a 50.40 in the prelims for the fastest time by an ASU swimmer this year. She finished sixth in the finals.
Hedenskog and Szigeti were both a part of all five relay teams over the weekend, including the school record-setting 400 free relay on Saturday (3:20.14). Others that were a part of the fastest 400 free relay in Sun Devil history were Banovic and Florence Mauro. The time they recorded is good enough for NCAA automatic qualification. All other Sun Devil relays recorded NCAA "B" consideration times and they were: 200 free (1:33.42), 800 free (7:23.50), 200 medley (1:42.38), and 400 medley (3:42.47).
Diving
Sophomore transfer Trisha Tumlinson had a fantastic weekend in the diving pool, where she set two school records and earned two second-place finishes. On Friday, Tumlinson recorded a 291.95 in the 1-meter springboard, besting the previous school record of 287.10 that junior Jessica Stenson set last year. In Saturday's platform diving event, Tumlinson scored a 453.15, which betters the previous ASU record of 438.65 that Trish Malatesta recorded in 2001. In the first 11-dive event that the squad has seen this year, Tumlinson recorded a 446.95 in the 3-meter springboard preliminaries on Friday, which barely missed the cut for that evening's final round. Tumlinson was the only diver to compete for the women over the weekend.
Final Team Scores
Women's
1. Texas 856
2. Wisconsin 673.50
3. Southern Cal 672
4. Arizona 633.50
5. Arizona State 419
6. UC Santa Barbara 165
7. Rice 145
8. Nebraska 117
9. Houston 93
10. TCU 84
11. Hawaii 76
12. Northwestern 49
13. Florida 35