Feb. 10, 2006
TEMPE, Ariz. (www.thesundevils.com) -- Arizona State sophomore swimmer C.J. Nuess (Medical Lake, Wash.) and senior diver Joona Puhakka (Helsinki, Finland) earned Pac-10 Men's Swimmer and Men's Diver of The Month honors for January, Commissioner Tom Hansen announced Friday. The award was Puhakka's second one of the season and Nuess' first.
In January, Nuess and the No. 23 Sun Devils competed against No. 14 Purdue, No. 8 Minnesota, No. 2 California and No. 3 Stanford. Against Purdue, Nuess won the 200-yard IM and the 400-yard IM. He also recorded second-place finishes in the 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly and the 1,000-yard freestyle. When ASU hosted Minnesota, Nuess won the 400-yard IM and recorded his fastest time of the season in the 1,000-yard freestyle touching the wall in 9:13.49. He also finished third in the 200-yard backstroke.
At Cal, Nuess finished in second place in the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard IM. Against Stanford, Nuess recorded a lifetime best of 15:48.68 in the 1,650-yard freestyle to capture first place. He also placed third in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Competing against Minnesota, Puhakka scored a 426.80 in the one-meter diving event and 434.77 in the three-meter event winning both of them. At Cal, he finished second in the one-meter scoring a 372.60 and third in the three-meter with a score of 304.87. Against Stanford, Puhakka swept the one-meter and three-meter diving events scoring a 254.20 and 247.05 respectively. Puhakka is the first male diver to with Pac-10 Diver of the Month honors in a season.
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