Swimming and diving earn three medals on final day of Pac-12 Championships

March 04, 2013

The Arizona State women's swimming and men and women's diving teams finished their competition in the 2013 Pac-12 Championships on March 3, earning three medals on the final day of the contest. Arizona State finished sixth in the championships with a final score of 786.5.


Tristin Baxter earned a second-place finish in the 1650 freestyle race with an NCAA B-cut time of 16:02.86. It is the junior's second silver medal in conference championships, and the time was only .26 seconds off of her personal record (16:02.60, 2012 NCAA Championships).


For the diving squad, senior Harrison Jones took home a bronze medal of his own in the men's platform competition. Scoring 392.00, Jones was only 7.90 points behind first-place finisher Rafael Quintero of Arizona and 6.40 points behind silver medalist Kristian Ipsen of Stanford.


Alex Popa rounded out a spectacular weekend in the championships by taking home the bronze medal in the 200-yard breaststroke. Swimming an NCAA A-cut of 2:08.31, the only A-cut time for the Devils, Popa finished just behind Caitlin Leverenz of California and Stina Gardell of USC. Popa had the fasted preliminary time in the race of 2:09.45.


Lizzy Luttrell and Kallie Golden both swam B-cut times in the 200-yard back competition (1:57.69 and 1:56.81, respectively) to follow Baxter's silver-medal performance. Juanita Barretto and Melanie Busch also competed in the 200 backstroke with times of 1:59.41 and 1:59.61.


Shannon Landgrebe tied for ninth in the 100-yard freestyle, touching at a B-cut time of 48.96 and tying with Arizona's Kait Flederbach. Cassie Morrice finished the 100 free finals at 49.68 for the Devils, another B-cut.


Senior Caroline Kuczynski rounded out her Pac-12 performance with a fourth-place finish in the 200 fly on a time of 1:56.38. Lori Layne Kremer touched tenth in the B finals at 1:58.59. Both times beat the NCAA B-cut.


The Devils finished their weekend in Washington on the 400-yard freestyle relay, coming in at fifth place only .51 seconds outside of the NCAA A-cut time. The team of Shannon Landgrebe, Cassie Morrice, Alex Popa and Melanie Buschtouched at 3:17.78.


Arizona State will see action next for the men's swim team as they partake in their respective Pac-12 Championships beginning March 6 and continuing through March 9.