ASU Swim/Dive: Lady Devils dominate Jayhawks in long course matchup

It’s intimidating to step on the blocks and see the swimmer next to you in a tech suit.

What’s more intimidating? Three or four of them.

As the winter-break training period concludes, most swimmers are overworked and tired. Teams do not typically swim fast times, as winter-break training is more focused on long-term results when teams reach the postseason.

The Sun Devils combated the fatigue onset by the training by “suiting up” every swimmer on the team. Only one Jayhawk wore a tech suit.

“I think what it really does is validate all the work they’ve done and brings some confidence to what they’ve been doing,” Associate Head Coach Rachel Statton-Mills said of her team’s sweep of the Jayhawks.

ASU collected a perfect 14 of 14 first-place finishes, combined with 11 second-place finishes. The 200 medley relay, 200 backstroke and 200 breaststroke were the only events where the Sun Devils did not take a 1-2 finish.

Four Arizona State swimmers notched 2 first-place finishes. Among them was freshman butterflyer Lindsay Looney.

“We’ve had a pretty rough but good winter training the past three weeks,” Looney said. “It was really nice being able to have the tram behind me and back me up the whole time.”

Joining Looney on the podium twice were seniors Nora Deleske and Chloe Isleta; and junior Erica Laning.

“Erica Laning stepped up and she really did a great job,” Stratton-Mills said. “We put her in different things; she went all the way down to swimming the 50 [meter freestyle].”

Deleske, the IM/breast specialist had the highest SwimCloud performance points, with the bulk coming from her first-place finish in the 200-meter breaststroke.

The Sun Devils travel to Stanford in two weeks to swim a two-day meet. The first day will be raced in short course yards, before the pool is flipped the next day for long course meters.