January 7, 1999
Arizona State Men's and Women's Swimming
Arizona State vs Brigham Young * Jan. 8 * 2 p.m. * Men
Arizona State vs Utah * Jan. 9 * 11 a.m. * Men and Women
TEMPE, Ariz - The Arizona State men's and women's swimming teams return to action this week with a pair of dual meets at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center on the campus of Arizona State University. On Friday (Jan. 8) the men's team, 1-2 in dual meets this season will take on Brigham Young at 2 p.m. The following day, both the men's and women's teams will compete in a dual meet against the University of Utah, beginning at 11 a.m. This week's meets will be the first time in which the women's team will be under the direction of Michael Chasson. Chasson, who is in his first year as head coach of the men's team, was appointed to take over the reins of the women's program last week following the dismissal of Tim Hill.
ASU WOMEN LAST WEEK: The Arizona State women's swimming team defeated the University of Chicago 93-21 last Saturday to improve its record to 3-2-1. The Sun Devils had the top finisher in every event of the abbreviated meet (there were six events). Top finishers for the Devils included junior Allyson Miller (100 breast, 1:07.98), junior Tennille Taylor (50 free, 24.65), freshman Riley Mants (200 IM, 2:07.53), sophomore Lauren Morelli (100 back, 59.66), freshman Sarah Baham (100 fly, 56.47) and junior co-captain Casey Murphy (100 free, 54.06).
NOTES FROM LAST MONTH'S TEXAS INVITATIONAL: The following are some highlights from last month's Longhorn Invitational in Austin, Texas (Dec. 4-6), which featured some of the best swimmers from around the country: Senior all-American Francisco Sanchez automatically qualified for the NCAAs in the 50 and 100 free ... Sanchez broke the Texas Invitational meet record in both events with a 19.55 in the 50 free and a 42.95 in the 100 free ... Sanchez was also part of two relay teams that set Texas Invitational records: The 200 free relay team of Pablo Abal, Simon MacDonald, Scott VonSchoff and Sanchez swam a 1:19.21 ... two days later, Abal, Scott VonSchoff, MacDonald and Sanchez set yet another record in the 400 free relay, swimming a 2:55.90 ... freshman Bo West finished fifth in the 200 free (1:28.40) ... junior all-America Carolyn Adel recorded top-10 finishes in the 500 free (10th, 4:51.38), 200 IM (8th, 2:03.46) and the 400 IM (7th, 4:18.26) ... senior Camilla Johansson finished first in the 200 back 1:59.10 and eighth in the 100 back (57.83) ... freshman Sarah Baham finished first in the preliminaries of the 50 free (24.05) and ninth in the finals of the 100 fly (54.76) ... freshman Riley Mants finished second in the 200 breast (2:12.70) and fourth in the 100 breast (1:02.63).
ASU Head Coach Michael Chasson on this week's meets: "The first step coming back from the holidays is to see what kind of condition the team is in after their break; hopefully they trained at home. We are going to take where they are right now and keep building on that. This half of the season we spend more time on speed work and trying to get faster (as opposed to) not as much time spent on conditioning. These should be good tune-up meets for the conference meets and that's really where our focus will be right now for both the men's and women's teams.
"Brigham Young will be a very tough meet for the men. They have excellent diving and three or four swimmers that are outstanding. There are some events that they are really good in, particularly the 200 free and 200 back and so that is going to be a tough meet. With Utah, on the men's side, they have three or four really good swimmers and so there will be some good races. On the women's side, I think that our women have been training really well and so I am looking for us to have some good races there.
"I think we are definitely on track. The (men's) team has continued to improve. They trained well at home during the holidays and they came back in good shape and I think we are setting ourselves up for a great second half of the season."
UP NEXT: The Sun Devils have a week off before returning to the pool for a pair of home meets against conference competition. On Fri., Jan. 22, the men and women face California at 2 p.m. The following day Stanford invades Tempe to take on the Sun Devils with the women's meet beginning at 11 a.m. and the men's starting at 1:30 p.m. at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center on the campus of Arizona State University.