Feb. 23, 2004
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This Week
For the swimming and diving teams, everyone is in action this week except the men's swimmers as the Pac-10 Championships get underway. The No. 21 women's swimming team travels to Long Beach, Calif. to take part in their conference championships February 25-28. The men's and women's divers head to Federal Way, Wash. where the conference diving championships will be contested February 26-28.
The Polls
In the sixth poll released by the CSCAA for the 2003-04 season, the ASU men are ranked 15th while the women are ranked 21st. For the complete poll, see the full version of this release or visit www.cscaa.org.
Women at the Pac-10s
The Sun Devil women have placed sixth at the past eight Pac-10 Championship meets. At last year's meet, ?gnes Kov?cs led the Sun Devils with second-place finishes in the 200 breaststroke, the 100 breaststroke and the 200 IM. Petra Banovic had an outstanding 100 freestyle, where she finished second and set a new Sun Devil record in the process, breaking the previous mark that had stood since 1988. This year's meet begins on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. PST with the 800 freestyle relay and the 200 medley relay. The rest of the days will feature preliminaries at 11 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. Thursday's events are the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free and 200 free relay. Friday's events are the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 400 medley relay. Saturday's events are the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay.
Divers at the Pac-10s
The men's and women's diving teams compete Thursday through Saturday at the Pac-10 Diving Championships. The women's diving scores will be added to the women's total score at the Pac-10 Championships held concurrently in Long Beach. The men's diving scores will be added to the total at the Pac-10 Men's Swimming Championships held next week in Long Beach. The diving teams had exceptional meets last year at the Pac-10s led by Joona Puhakka who claimed conference titles on both the 1m and 3m and took third on platform. He was named the Pac-10 Diver of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. Trisha Tumlinson finished second on platform at the meet last year and was named the Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year.
ASU, Last Time In The Pool
The swimming and diving teams closed out the regular season February 14 with a dual meet against Arizona at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. The No. 15 Sun Devil men fell to the No. 8 Wildcats 169.50-128.50 while the No. 21 ASU women were on the short side of a 170-130 scoreline against the No. 7 Wildcats. In the diving pool sophomore All-American Joona Puhakka and junior All-American Trisha Tumlinson swept the diving events. For the men's swimmers, Ahmed Hussein won both backstroke events, clocking a 55.32 in the 100 and a 2:02.13 in the 200. The other individual winner for the men in the swimming pool was sophomore All-American David Kolozar, who touched the wall first in the 400 freestyle (3:55.84). For the women's swimmers, Florencia Szigeti continued her strong season by winning both the 50 freestyle (26.49) and the 100 freestyle (56.67). Junior All-American ?gnes Kov?cs also won two events, dominating the field in the 200 breaststroke (2:28.72) and also touching the wall first in the 200 IM (2:15.82). She finished second in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.35).
Puhakka Fifth At Diving World Cup
In a meet featuring the best divers in the world, Arizona State's Joona Puhakka placed fifth on the 3-meter springboard February 20 while competing for his native Finland at the FINA Diving World Cup at the Olympic Aquatic Center in Athens, Greece. The sophomore hit all six of his dives in the final round to score a 680.13, a career-best. Puhakka showed his poise after narrowly making the final round with a 12th-place finish in the semifinals. The fifth-place showing marks his highest finish ever on the 3m in an international meet and the score all but assures him a spot on Finland's Olympic roster.
Follow The Action Online
The women's Pac-10 Championships in Long Beach are being hosted by Arizona State. ASU's Pac-10 Championships webpage can be accessed through www.TheSunDevils.com or the webpage's direct address by clicking here. The site contains links to updated information on all competing teams and will have updated event results as soon as they are available for posting on the web.