Women's swimming opens Pac-12 Championships

The Arizona State women's swimming team kicked off competition at the Pac-12 Championships, Feb. 27, in Federal Way, Wash. The Sun Devils scored a total of 100 points on the first night, good for fifth place after two events.

The Sun Devils finished fifth in both the 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays in the first day of championship competition. The 200 medley, consisting of Taylor Wohrley, Alex Popa, Caroline Kuczynski and Shannon Landgrebe, touched fifth behind Arizona, USC, Stanford and Cal and earned an NCAA B standard with a time of 1:39.06. The finish is good for the third-best time in school history. The 800 freestyle saw Landgrebe, Cassie Morrice, Lizzy Luttrell and Tristin Baxter touch in with an NCAA A standard time of 7:05.16, the second-best time in ASU program history. Showing the depth of the conference, the first six teams to finish in the 800 free each recorded NCAA A standard qualifying times.

Arizona State continues competition on Thursday, with finals for the 500 freestyle, 200 IM and 50 free individual events, as well as the 200 freestyle relay. Baxter is seeded in second in the 500 free behind USC's Haley Anderson, with school record holder Morrice seeded fifth. Landgrebe, the Sun Devils' top sprinter is seeded seventh in the 50 free. 

The diving team will see action with finals in the men's 3-meter and the women's 1-meter. Waiting until the week before competition, head coach Mark Bradshaw and Riley McCormick decided the junior Olympian would make the trip to Washington. McCormick will now go head-to-head with teammate and two-time 2012-13 Pac-12 Diver of the month Harrison Jones, who is undefeated so far on the season. With the addition of Stanford's Kristian Ipsen, the Pac-12 Diving Championships could be a prelude to NCAA Championship Competition. Since this is McCormick's first appearance this season, he will need to score about a 300 on the 1-meter and 320 on the 3-meter in his only chance to qualify for NCAA competition.