Destin Lasco and Cal Men “Inspired” By Arizona State, Focused on NCAA Championships
In the middle of January, Arizona State upset the established order in men’s swimming and diving with a dominant dual meet win over defending national champion Cal by the dominant margin of 211-87. The meet was a stark contrast in styles, with the Sun Devils donning tech suits while the Golden Bears raced in practice suits, and all of Arizona State’s stars delivered: Leon Marchand crushed the NCAA record in the 400 IM while coming close to the top mark in the 200 breaststroke, and freestyler Grant House, butterfly specialist Alex Colson and ASU’s sprint relays all recorded signature performances.
In fact, the only events all day where the Cal men scored victories were in the backstroke races, with reigning 200 back NCAA champion Destin Lasco taking first place in both. And after the meet, Lasco could acknowledge the efforts of Arizona State head coach Bob Bowman in transforming the Sun Devils into a national powerhouse. Lasco stressed respect, not rivalry and acrimony, and in fact, he explained that the atmosphere created on a Saturday at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center fueled him as well.
“I just have to give a shout-out to ASU because the times that they swam were absolutely phenomenal,” Lasco said. “It was really inspiring seeing Leon get up not just for one race but for three individual races and a couple relays. That was awesome, and the energy that they brought, the crowd they brought really helped me dig deep in my events and really put something up there that I would be proud of, and I was at the end of the day.
“It also goes to show how fast our Pac-12 conference is, not only in the U.S. but in the world. I feel like that was just a little taste of what Pac-12s is going to be like. Stanford raced before, and they swam really well, too, so when you put all the Pac-12 teams together at one meet, I think sparks are going to fly, not only at Pac-12s but at NCAAs. The ASU guys, they’re all really, really mature, and really caring of their athletes and of us, too. I got to talk to Bob after the meet and got to pick his brain on his philosophies of where his athletes were at in his part of the season, and he was extremely open about it.”
The Bears and Sun Devils will meet twice more this season, first at the Pac-12 Championships in Federal Way, Wash., and then three weeks later at the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, and at both of those meets, the teams will be on more equal footing regarding swimwear, but tech suits alone cannot help Cal make up the more-than-100-point deficit. Cal will need to rely on the pieces returning from last year’s national-championship team.
That means Lasco, sprinter Bjorn Seeliger, championship-final breaststrokers Liam Bell and Reece Whitley and sophomore Gabriel Jett, the U.S. national champion in the 200-meter butterfly continuing to extend his range as a sophomore. Without prompting, Lasco mentioned Jett as one of the Bears’ standout swimmers in the ASU dual meet with his strong time of 1:33.28 in the 200 free (in a practice suit).
More than perhaps any other team in men’s or women’s college swimming, Cal shows up at the end of the season. Going back to head coach Dave Durden’s third year with the program, Cal has finished first or second overall at every NCAA Championships. At the time of the Arizona State dual meet, Cal’s team was a week-and-a-half removed from an altitude camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, with sights set on NCAAs and the ensuing long course season.
One dual meet loss — or even a runnerup finish at the upcoming conference championships — will not derail Cal’s plan that will surely result in contending for a title in late March.
“Dave’s a big guy about process,” Lasco said. “He told the team, ‘Let’s just focused on what we’re doing,’ and for me, soon or not, I just wanted to post times that I would be happy with, and the training that I was doing at OTC, I really wanted to see where I was at. Suited or not suited, I just really wanted to put up a good number, and I did. I was really happy.”
Destin and Dave. Both are skilled, inspiring and class at the same time; Each has carried these traits THROUGHOUT their careers.