ASU Swim/Dive: Women defeat Oregon State in decisive fashion

Throughout the first seven events of the evening in Corvallis, the Sun Devil women made it clear they would control the waters. The Devils struck first in the opening event, the 400-yard medley relay, out touching the Beavers’ A-relay by a hair under four seconds. Junior Chloe Isleta led off with the backstroke leg, then to junior Silja Kansakoski for breaststroke.

Then, it came to freshman Ruby Martin in her first official meet of her collegiate career. If Martin’s first swim is indicative of what is to come, the Sun Devils struck gold in the butterflyer from Iowa. Martin built on the lead over the Beavers, then senior Fanny Teijonsalo swam freestyle to secure the win.

After last week’s intrasquad, head coach Bob Bowman praised his distance swimmers as the strongest part of his squad. They earned his praise in the 1000-yard freestyle, as sophomore Caitlyn Wilson, junior Kendall Dawson, sophomore Cameron Smith, and junior Bentley Hulshof finished in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively, leaving the Beavers to 5th, 6th, and 7th places in the race.

With this amount of power comes great depth as well, and in the next event (the 200-yard freestyle) the Devils decided to flaunt their speed with another 1-2-3-4 finish. This time, senior Marlies Ross, sophomore Erica Laning, sophomore Emma Nordin, and freshman Lilia Smith took care of business. Ross dominated the entire race; her front 100-yards blazed past the field in 53.73, and on the way home she eased off the gas to finish the race at 1:50.76.

Once the Sun Devils took the lead, they refused to give it up. Chloe Isleta dominated in her signature event, the 100-yard backstroke, with a time of 54.94. The next finisher, junior Felicia Anderson of Oregon State, finished at 56.24, nearly two full seconds behind Isleta. In another flex of dominance for the Devils, Ruby Martin notched another first-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly, an event that yielded yet another 1-2-3-4 finish for the team.

Sun Devil swimmers finished in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the 50-yard freestyle, one of the most exciting races of the evening. Fanny Teijonsalo won the event with a time of 24.16, but not far behind were seniors Krista Kolkebeck (24.34) and Sam Fazio (24.71). At the midway break in the meet, the Sun Devils led the Beavers by a thick margin: 105-26.

The distance freestylers seized another opportunity to shine in the 500-yard freestyle–another 1-2-3-4 event for the women wearing maroon and gold. Emma Nordin squeezed under the five-minute mark to notch a remarkable 4:59.47 first place finish, showing that she is already in midseason form. Not far behind were Caitlyn Wilson, Kendall Dawson, and Bentley Hulshof to further exemplify why Coach Bowman praises his distance freestylers.

The 100-yard butterfly was the premier event of Friday evening; Ruby Martin and Marlies Ross were set to square off against Oregon State’s principal butterflyer, junior Paige Maynard. The trio all finished the front 50 within .17 seconds of each other, a true sign of a nail biter race. Martin is known for her lengthy underwaters, and she is able to showcase these in the 100-yard butterfly, where she finished in first place, at 56.31. Maynard touched just after at 56.55, and Ross was just behind her at 56.86.

As if this meet did not have enough showcase swims for the Devils, the 400-yard individual medley proved to be yet another. After the first 100 yards of butterfly, Chloe Isleta touched just one one-hundredth of a second ahead of sophomore Nora Deleske. Luckily for Isleta, the next stroke in the IM is her favorite: backstroke. She jetted ahead of Deleske to build her lead from .01 seconds to five full seconds. She kept the lead for the remainder of the race, to finish at 4:26.16, with Deleske following in 4:29.77. Of course, the Sun Devils came to Corvallis to swim, and they did just that. Freshmen Rachael Holp and Lizzy Spears finished next to make the event yet another 1-2-3-4 finish for the Devils.

In the final event, the 200-yard freestyle relay, the ASU “A” Relay notched another first place finish to cap off this show of riches. Fanny Teijnosalo led off in 24.34 seconds to give the relay a lead they would not concede. Krista Kolkebeck, at 23.41, handed the relay off to mid-distance freestyler Erica Laning, who swam her 50 yards in 23.56. Although the Devils had the lead, when sophomore Camryn Curry dove into the water, she did not plan to take her foot off of the gas pedal–she swam the fastest time of the meet for either team, at 23.33. If any pundits were not convinced of the ability of this ASU squad, they should be now.

At the end of the evening, the ASU women secured first place finishes in every event to cap off a 153-96 win over the Beavers. The Sun Devils came to Corvallis to swim, and they did just that on Friday evening. The swimming and diving squad will be back in action on Friday, October 26^th, as the men and women travel to Tallahasse to take on Florida State.