(Photo: Brady Klain/Blaze Sports)
The weather was better during Arizona’s second meet of the weekend against CAL, but the Sun Devils were not as the men lost by a score of 130-160 and the women by 111-181 to the Golden Bears.
The strain of having back-to-back meets versus two of the nation’s top swim clubs in Stanford and CAL took its toll on ASU as in general, all of the race times were slower when compared to those put up by the team yesterday.
“A lot of its mental; a lot of it’s how you manage yourself,” head Coach Bob Bowman said. “So, it’s just kind of the next step in our development as a team is not to put together just one good day, but to do two.”
Nonetheless, one of the Sun Devils that stood out today was Marlies Ross as she took second in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:18.9. Additionally, she stole first in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:16.8.
“It’s my job to try and see if I can make points,” Marlies Ross said. It’s all about team effort and what I contribute to the team. If the coaches trust me to do so many events I’m glad and I’m honored to be performing for this team.”
Silija Kansakowski was just behind teammate Ross in the aforementioned race and took second with a time of 2:17.31. Kansakowski did not let any swimmer beat her in the 100-yard breaststroke with a close first place victory time of 1:01.3. She did not stop there. Kansakowksi also managed third in 100-yard butterfly.
“For the women, Marlies Ross was very good today. Silija Kansakowski very, very good. I thought our female sprint relay on the end was very, very good,” Bowman said
This 200-yard freestyle relay team, consisting of senior co-captains Alysha Bush and Kat Simonovic, Ingibjorg Jonsdottir, and freshman Claire Fisch, was second only to CAL’s A-squad relay with a time of 1:33.21.
“Today was a bit of a challenge,” Kat Simonovic said. But I think it was about just hitting those checkpoints and setting ourselves up for conference. I think the closer we get to that the more successful we’ll be as a team.”
The men’s 200-yard freestyle relay team composed of Patrick Park, Tadas Duskinas, Cameron Craig, and Richard Bohus also took second in this event with a time of 1:20.64. This trend for the men’s team developed earlier in the meet as the 400-yard medley relay team was the second team to touch the wall as well.
I think we were just a little bit rusty today because our last race was in the end of November, the Texas Invite, it seemed like,” Bohus said. “Yesterday we had a great energy. Today too, but everyone was dying. It was okay I think. At least we know we’ll get some good feedback like how we are doing and that we have to focus on recovery.”
Bohus continued this second place pattern on the individual scale as he took the slot behind that of decorated Olympian, Ryan Murphy, in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 48.03. This race is one that Bohus is known for, and today marks the last time he will race it at his home pool of Mona Plummer.
“There are a lot of memories,” Bohus said. “It is really hard to summarize, but it goes through you whenever you realize that this is your last home meet. So, it was pretty tough.”
However, the same cannot be said for freshman Zachary Poti, who is just beginning his career as a backstroker for ASU. Poti snagged second behind CAL’s Murphy in 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:45.97.
“We came a long way. In the beginning,” Bohus said. There were just a couple of us who could compete with the best and get third place or fourth place. Now, we have a great team; we were like 15 points off from Stanford and I don’t know, but I don’t think that’s happened in the last fifteen years. We beat USC so it’s been a really great season.
The completion of the season is insight for the Sun Devil freshmen and seniors alike as they take on the University of Arizona in two weeks for their last meet of the regular season.
If you have any questions for the reporter, you can contact Paige Burnell by email at pburnell272gmail.com, or on Twitter @paige_burnell
