UA women swimmers look to break record against ASU
Striving to break the single-season record for dual-meet wins, the Arizona women's swimming and diving squad enters into its final regular season competition against No. 22 Arizona State this weekend.
Boasting a 9-1 record, only the Sun Devils stand in the way of the Wildcat women in becoming the first Arizona swimming and diving team to reach the double-digit win plateau. The women's quest to become immortalized in UA athletic history begins at 1 p.m. tomorrow at Hillenbrand Aquatic Center.
Head coach Frank Busch said his squad is ready for the task at hand.
"We are going to come in fired-up," he said. "We certainly don't want to loose to ASU."
The No. 6 Arizona men will look to earn their first Pacific 10 Conference win of the season against the Sun Devils. The UA men have three conference losses and an overall record of 3-6. Their competition, the No. 11 Sun Devils are fresh off a defeat of Northern Arizona, which propelled their dual-meet record to 4-4.
Busch said he has made no special preparations for this meet and just wants to come out and swim the fastest times possible.
This is the first meet for the Wildcats since a quad meet in Texas over the weekend of Jan. 29-30.
The break from actual competition has not fazed his swimmers, Busch said.
"There is going to be no lack of effort," he said. "Our kids will take this meet seriously, just based on the fact that it is ASU."
Busch said the weekend should be "very competitive."
Last year, the Wildcat women downed the Sun Devils at ASU by a final score of 204.5-93.5, while the men were defeated in a squeaker, 153-147.
"This weekend will feature a real good dogfight on the men's side," Busch said. "It should be exciting."
Because this is the final regular season event for Busch's team, he sees the weekend as also an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming Pac-10 championships.
"This weekend can be proving ground for our swimmers going to Pac-10's," Busch said. "It is just more practice for the postseason competition."
The meet against ASU will mark the final appearance of several Wildcat swimmers at Hillenbrand. Senior swimmers Diana Groff and Leah Zucker, along with divers Kelly Blackstock and Angelique Rodriguez, will complete their eligibility this May.
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