Jessica Palacio
The Paw Print
The ASU women’s swim team had their final regular season competition this past Friday in Plachy Hall. Going into the meet the women were 5-0 in conference competition for the 2012/2013 season, and with a decisive victory over Western, the Grizzlies are now 6-0 headed into the RMAC conference championships that will take place mid-February.
The final score of the meet was 97-60 in favor of the Grizzlies. Of the 11 events, the Grizzlies placed first in all but the final relay, which Coach France decided to have both Grizzly squads do as exhibition.
Two Grizzlies finished top in both events they competed in. Sophomore Maggie Morris took solid wins in both the 100yard butterfly with a time of 1:02.55 and the 50yard freestyle with an impressive 25.54, a mere two tenths of a second off from the pool record set by Morris earlier this season. Freshman Alison Bischoff also won both of her individual events, posting a 2:04.11 in her 200yard freestyle and a 1:11.30 in the 100yard breaststroke.
Another notable individual performance came from freshman Kelsie Baggs. Baggs was the winner of her individual event, the 100yard backstroke, as well as the lead-off 200-medley relay that set a new Plachy pool record. As a result of her accomplishments, Baggs was named RMAC conference swimmer of the week. When asked about her feelings about receiving this honor, Baggs said, “…I’m surprised and flattered actually. Any of the girls that I train with deserve it just as well. They, combined with Coach Dan, have been pushing me every day to be better. I owe it to them.” Baggs is the third Grizzly to achieve such honors this year.
Junior Jennell Higgs also placed first in her individual event, the 400yard individual medley. Higgs has been a huge part of the Grizzlies’ success this season, with leading performances in almost every meet. When asked to comment on her thoughts of the meet, Higgs said, “It was nice to see all of the community support as well as the support of the other athletic teams at the meet.” As for the impending conference championships Higgs said, “The team is really excited, we’ve put in a lot of hard work this year and are looking forward to seeing it pay off at conference. I know that everyone on the team is looking forward to the meet and really making a statement about how far the program has come in the last couple years.”
The Grizzly relays both had strong performances, in the 200yard medley relay both the “A” and “B” squads were within one second of one another and finished with a four-second lead on the Western Relay. The 200yard freestyle relays, which as noted above was competed as exhibition events, were approximately four seconds apart with the “B” relay still finishing nearly six seconds before the Western State relay.
What’s Been Said…