Popa, Jones break school swim records as Devils continue Pac-12 championships

The Sun Devils made their way up the record books as competition continued at the Pac-12 championships in Washington, Feb. 28.

Arizona State currently sits at sixth overall in the field with 308 points, marked by new school records from Alex Popa in the 200 IM and Harrison Jones in the men's 1-meter dive.

Jones notched a score of 437.5 in his six dives in the 1-meter competition to take second place behind Stanford's Kristian Ipsen. The score bests the previous school record in a championship of 427.40 set by Joona Puhakka in 2006. Riley McCormick finished fifth with a score of 338.40 in his first appearance of the season at the diving board. Morgan Weller and Hailey Casper finished sixth (296.45) and seventh (289.90) respectively for the diving team in the women's 3-meter competition.

Cassie Morrice opened the evening of swimming finals with a season record and an NCAA B-cut time of 4:41.32 in the 500-yard freestyle, which was only .01 seconds off of her career best and the ASU school record of 4:41.31. Senior Tristin Baxter finished eighth in the race with a B-cut 4:43.91.

Alex Popa broke the previous Sun Devil record in the 200 IM, swimming a 1:57.70 to beat Mattie Kukors' record of 1:58.12 set last year. The junior from Romania touched seventh overall, earning a B-cut along with teammate Caroline Kuczynski who had a time of 2:00.38.

The 50-yard freestyle saw Shannon Landgrebe swim a career-best 22.57, beating her previous best time of 22.65 that was set in the 2012 NCAA Championships. The B-cut time places second overall in Arizona State's record books just behind Caitlin Andrew's 22.07 in 2008.

The Devils finished fifth overall in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Juanita Barretto, Melanie Busch, Jamie Friderichs and Kayra Zsiga touched with a final time of 1:31.95.

Arizona State continues competition Friday, with finals in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast and 100 back. Jones and McCormick will match up against Kristian Ipsen for the second time in the men's 3-meter competition, and Weller and Casper will take back to the diving well in the women's 1-meter finals Friday evening.