The Arizona Wildcats and Arizona State Sun Devils faced off in an intense rivalry dual meet Saturday afternoon in Tucson. While the Arizona women pulled away quickly to pick up the victory, the men’s meet came down to the wire, and the two teams ended up tying at 147 after ASU went 1-3 in the final relay.
The Wildcat men went up early when Chris Wieser won the 1000 free in 9:03.56, and then they took first in the 200 medley relay in 1:25.15. ASU won the next two events (Cameron Craig in the 200 free and Richard Bohus in the 100 back), but Arizona won three straight to go into the first break ahead 86-61.
That span included arguably the best individual race of the meet, when Arizona’s Justin Wright pulled away from ASU’s Patrick Park to win the 200 fly, 1:42.55 to 1:43.46. Arizona’s Blair Bish took first in the 100 breast in 53.15, and Chatham Dodds was the only man under 20 seconds in the 50 free, touching in 19.87.
But ASU rebounded after the break, as Craig (43.93), Bohus (43.97) and Park (44.15) swept the top three spots in the 100 free. Arizona then got a win from Nick Thorne in the 100 back (1:43.70), but ASU’s Christian Lorenz won the 200 breast over Bish, 1:56.69 to 1:57.35, and ASU’s Ben Olszewski eged out Wieser in the 500 free, 4:22.18 to 4:22.29.
ASU’s Andrew Porter, who transferred from Arizona, won the 100 fly in 46.35. Combined with key points from diving, where Heikki Makikaillo and Youssef Salim finished 1-2 in the men’s three-meter event, the meet was tied going into the final two events, the 400 IM and 400 free relay.
But Thorne dominated the 400 IM, posting a final time of 3:49.18, and the Wildcats also took third and fourth place, putting them up nine going into the final relay. ASU needed to finish first and second in that event to win the meet.
For about half the race, it looked like that might be the case, but Arizona ended up making it an excellent three-squad duel going into the wall. In the end, the Sun Devils’ A-team won in 2:54.07, followed by Arizona’s A-team (2:54.31) and the ASU B-team (2:55.05).
The 11-2 point advantage for the Sun Devils meant that the meet would finish in a dead heat.
The women’s meet was less competitive as the Wildcats jumped out early and extended their advantage. Sophomore sprinter Katrina Konopka was excellent for her team, winning the 50 (22.42) and 100 free (49.13), and she also contributed swift splits of 21.62 (50 free) and 48.65 (100 free) on a pair of winning relays.
Arizona’s Annie Ochitwa edged out sophomore teammate Taylor Garcia to win the 100 back, 52.63 to 52.67. For ASU, Kat Simonovic won both the 200 free (1:45.71) and 500 free (4:43.28), while teammate Silja Kansakoski swept the 100 (1:00.47) and 200 breast (2:13.97).
Full results can be found by clicking here.
Stanford Men Take Down USC
The Cardinal picked up a comfortable 179-121 victory at home against the Trojans Saturday. USC tried to get off to a quick start, and it looked like they may be in position to do so when Santo Condorelli held off Sam Perry (who split 19.19) to win the 200 medley relay, but the Trojans were DQ’ed for Dylan Carter’s false start.
Stanford ended up getting first and second-place points in the relay, and then True Sweetser (8:59.73), Liam Egan (9:05.05) and Justin Buck (9:09.62) swept the top three spots in the 1000.
USC rolled off a string of victories after that as Carter won the 200 free (1:34.96), Ralf Tribuntsov won the 100 back (47.20), and Carsten Vissering posted a 53.08 for the top spot in the 100 breast, but the Cardinal rallied and pulled away.
Perry ended up picking up individual wins in the 50 free (19.75) and then in the 100 free, where he edged out Carter, 43.67 to 43.83. After Patrick Mulcare won the 200 back and Steven Stumph took the 200 breast, Stanford again finished 1-2-3 in the 500 free with Grant Shoults winning in 4:18.40 ahead of Sweetser and Egan.
Full results can be found here.
A tie like vs USC? Or a real tie?
The announcer couldn’t even wait for the officially tallied points that right after the relay teams touched the wall, he immeditely declared that Arizona had won the meet!!! How embarrassing is that, and how unfair was that to take that moment away from the ASU team. How can you not count the 3rd place finisher? Worst of all, right after all the announcement was made and the chanting from the Arizona team, the announcer started playing, “All I do is win win win…” and the more the Arizona team got louder with the trolling!
Another thing that was so uncalled for was how the Arizona men’s team booed their former team who now swims for ASU, Andrew Porter, when he was behind the blocks being announced before the 50 Free race!!! It was shameful, showed no class and a very poor sportsman like conduct from the host team Arizona!!! Not cool at all…
Right below is from another editor for SwimmingWorld Magazine:
“For a few moments, it looked like Arizona’s nightmare scenario was unfolding. Sun Devil relays indeed occupied the top two spots at the halfway point, but Arizona sophomore Chad Idensohnpulled ahead of Reid Elliott and the ASU B-team on the third leg, and anchor Parks Jones held on for a second-place finish.
Arizona’s men had apparently won by a final score of 147-145. Both women and men erupted on deck in victorious celebration. One swimmer shouted, “This is our pool!”
But as the teams were preparing to congratulate each other, venue announcer Jeff Commings came back on the microphone. The Sun Devils had actually picked up two additional points from the B-team’s third-place finish in the relay. They, too, had scored 147 points. It was a tie.”
I hate to be nit-picky, but ASU v UofA was such a great college dual meet on so many levels, I wanted to make sure the article text was accurate as to the scoring/timing progress: “…then they took first in the 200 medley relay in 1:35.59. ASU won the next two events (Cameron Craig in the 200 free and Richard Bohus in the 100 back), but ASU won three straight to go into the first break ahead 86-61.”
In reality UofA won the Medley relay in 1:25.15 (not 1:35.59), primarily, in my opinion, on the strength of wonderful Breast (:23.72 – Bish) and Fly (:19.98 – Idensohn) splits. Then, UofA (not ASU) won three straight and lead 86-61 at the break.
Otherwise, great summary of great meet!
Just noticed another minor “Whoops!” Dobbs won the men’s 50 at :19.87, whereas the noted :19.71 was done as an exhibition swim during the first break by former Wildcat Brad Tandy.
Whoops. Fixed all that. Time from the relay would have been the WOMEN’S time. Results weren’t posted online yet when I wrote this, so I used my handwritten notes — and as many SW staff members could tell you, my handwriting is awful!