March 17, 2004
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This Week
The Arizona State women's swimming and diving team is sending seven representatives to the 2004 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship March 18-20 in College Station, Texas. Senior All-American Petra Banovic, junior Cara DeVinny, and junior All-Americans ?gnes Kov?cs, Florencia Szigeti and Trisha Tumlinson return to the national championships while sophomore Erin Baldinger and freshman Amanda Gillespie are making their first trip. ASU is qualified in the 400 free (Banovic), 200 IM (Kov?cs), 50 free (Szigeti, Baldinger), 400 IM (DeVinny), 200 free (Szigeti, Banovic, Gillespie), 100 breast (Kov?cs), 100 back (Baldinger), 100 free (Szigeti, Banovic), 200 breast (Kov?cs), all three diving events (Tumlinson) and in the 400 medley relay. The entire women's official psyche sheet can be viewed on the web by clicking here.
The Polls
In the final dual meet poll released by the CSCAA for the 2003-04 season, the ASU men are ranked 15th while the women are ranked 22nd. For the complete poll, see the full version of this release or visit www.cscaa.org.
Women, Last Time In The Pool
With a total of 863 points, the Sun Devil women earned their highest conference finish since the 1995 season, placing fifth at the Pac-10 Women's Swimming Championship held February 25-28 at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach. Winning her first conference title was junior All-American Florencia Szigeti who turned in an exceptional effort in the 200 freestyle (1:46.46) and broke her own school record she set earlier that day in the preliminaries. Szigeti also finished fourth in the 100 free (49.85) and sixth in the 50 free (23.26). Junior All-American ?gnes Kov?cs placed second in the 100 breast (1:00.56), third in the 200 breast (2:10.32) and fourth in the 200 IM (1:59.58). Other Sun Devils who finished in the top eight included senior All-American Petra Banovic in the 200 free (6th-1:47.99) and junior Cara DeVinny in the 400 IM (8th-4:17.79).
Fast Times Recorded At Pac-10 Meet
At the Pac-10 Championships in late February, several women's swimmers recorded some of the fastest times in Sun Devil history. Leading the way was Florencia Szigeti who clocked a 1:46.46 in the 200 freestyle, setting a new ASU record and winning the Pac-10 title in the event, her first conference crown. Petra Banovic recorded the second-fastest time in ASU history in the 200 free during the opening leg of the 800 freestyle relay with a time of 1:47.17. Szigeti and Banovic are the only Sun Devil women ever to swim under 1:48.00 in the event. Banovic also notched the 6th-fastest 500 free time (4:47.47) to become the only active member on the team to be in the top-10 in that event. The 50 free featured numerous fast times including Szigeti improving her No. 2 spot on the all-time top-10 (23.21) with Erin Baldinger (7th, 23.47), Florence Mauro (9th, 23.57) and Abra Armour (10th, 23.58) joining her on the list. Baldinger also impressed in the 100 back where she vaulted into the No. 2 position in the record books with a time of 55.27 that she recorded in the opening leg of the 400 medley relay. Others now in the top-10 in variuos events include Christine Creek in the 200 breaststroke (9th, 2:16.77), Amanda Gillespie in the 100 butterfly (8th, 55.75) and Cara DeVinny in the 400 IM (5th, 4:17.32).
Diving, Last Week At Zone E Regional
The Sun Devil divers continued their excellent season with a strong showing at the NCAA Zone E Diving Regional March 11-13 in Oklahoma City, Okla. ASU claimed the top qualifying spot on both the men's and women's sides as sophomore All-American Joona Puhakka and junior All-American Trisha Tumlinson each won two titles over the weekend. In dominating fashion, Puhakka claimed both springboard titles at the meet for the second year in a row, winning the 1m with a total of 767.65 points and the 3m with a score of 596.95. Tumlinson ran away with the women's meet, earning top honors on both the 1m (564.70) and platform (434.60) while she came in second on the 3m (486.85). Other top finishers for the Sun Devils on the men's side included juniors Thomas McCrummen and Gordon Blukis, who finished 10th and 12 overall respectively. Freshman Cassidy Farwell placed 12th overall on the women's side.
Six Men Qualified For NCAAs
The Sun Devils will be sending six men to the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships March 25-27 in East Meadow, N.Y. Senior All-Americans Nick Brunelli and Ahmed Hussein and sophomore All-Americans David Kolozar and Joona Puhakka return to the national championships while juniors Jeff Barrett and Emerson Ward are making their first trip. ASU is qualified in the 50 free (Brunelli), 200 free (Brunelli, Barrett), 100 breast (Ward), 100 back (Hussein), 200 back (Hussein), 100 free (Brunelli, Barrett), 200 fly (Kolozar) and all three diving events (Puhakka). The entire men's official psyche sheet can be viewed on the web by clicking here.