January 21, 1999
Arizona State vs California
Jan. 22, 2 p.m. - Men & Women
Arizona State vs Stanford
Jan. 23, 11 a.m. - Women, 1:30 p.m. - Men
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State men's (3-2 this season) and women's (5-2-1 this season) swimming and diving squads resume action this week with a pair of contests against top-10 Pac-10 foes. On Fri., Jan 22, the ASU men (No. 10) and women (No. 20) face California in a dual meet scheduled for 2 p.m. at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center on the campus of Arizona State University. California's men's squad enters this week's meet No. 8 in the country while its women's squad comes in at No. 6. The following day (Jan. 23) the Sun Devils will take on the Stanford Cardinal, whose men's and women's teams are both ranked No. 1 in the country.
LAST TIME OUT: The Arizona State men's and women's swimming and diving teams defeated the University of Utah Jan. 9 at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. The men (3--2) won 154-77 while the women (5-2-1) prevailed 160-74. The Sun Devil men won six of the nine individual events and both relays (200 medley and 200 free). Winners on the men's side included freshman Jacob Copley (1000 free, 9:36.31), sophomore Matt Carter (200 free, 1:41.72), junior Pablo Abal (50 free, 20.95), sophomore Austin Paulsen (400 IM, 4:00.04), freshman Bo West (500 free, 4:36.87) and recent transfer Travis Leyenhorst (100 breast, 56.92). The women were paced by freshmen Sarah Baham and Riley Mants, who both won two individual events. Baham took first in the 50 free (24.45) and the 100 fly (56.47) while Mants was victorious in the 400 IM (4:35.36) and the 100 free (53.66).
ASU Head Coach Michael Chasson on this week's meets: "I think that this weekend will be a good test of where we are. Since Texas (the Texas invitational in December) we haven't had a real tough meet that has been challenging swimming against top-level athletes. I think this will be a real good indication of where we are and if we have improved since December or not."
(Against California)
"I'm hoping to see some close races that we win. Last year ASU had a real close meet with Cal and I'm hoping that we can come back and maybe win this meet. It would be a good win to beat a team in the top 10, which is something that we haven't done this year. I think there will be a lot of close races that will be hotly contested. They are a big recruiting rival."
(Against Stanford)
"We are looking to see how many races we can win because there are some races that we can win against Stanford and if we can't win (then we want to see) how close we can be to winning them. We just want to be competitive and race them tough and see how we stack up against some of their top guys who have a lot of experience."
"This weekend's meets are a test of how our speed is working. We've spent more time working on speed, doing more quality stuff, but the only way you really know if you are moving in the right direction is swimming a meet against a good opponent."
On the women's team: "To a certain extent I have got a feel for what they do. We have only had two meets since I have been coaching them and both of those meets were against teams that weren't real strong and so certainly against these two teams we will have a much better idea of where we stack up."
RUNNER-UP FINISH FOR MALATESTA: ASU diver Trish Malatesta recently took second place in the platform competition at the 1999 All-American Diving Invitational held Jan. 6-10 in Austin, Texas. The meet included some of the top NCAA and club divers around the nation.
FABULOUS FROSH: One Sun Devil freshman who has already made a big impact this season is Riley Mants, who swam for Canada at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Already this season Mants has swam the Devils' second-best all-time times in the 100 (1:02.56) and 200 (2:12.70) breaststroke. Mants has also swam the ninth-fastest time in school history in the 200 IM (2:04.24).
UP NEXT: The Sun Devil men's and women's swimming and diving squads return to action next week when they host Northern Arizona on Sat., Jan. 30 at 11 a.m. at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center on the campus of Arizona State University.