Benedetti, Nuess set out for championships

 by Alex Espinoza
 published on Thursday, March 27, 2008

The ASU swim and dive season has just one more stop before the season ends.

The Sun Devils' super duo, senior All-American swimmer CJ Nuess and sophomore All-American diver Micky Benedetti, will represent ASU at the NCAA men's swim and dive championships this weekend in Federal Way, Wash.

Nuess has been ASU's best male swimmer this season and will finally get some consistent competition.

Aside from the UA dual meet and the Pac-10 Championships, it has been hard to find good competition for Nuess to swim against all season. He suffered just one loss in his best events — the long distance freestyle events — all season, which came against UA's Matt Biel in the 100-yard freestyle. Nuess should have no such problem this weekend, however, against the nation's top athletes.

Benedetti has been busy qualifying for the Olympics these past few months, but he isn't about to miss this meet. Last year, he notched a runner-up finish in the platform event while receiving honorable All-American honors in the one and three-meter events.

Benedetti swept all three events in the Pac-10 Diving Championships earlier this year in Federal Way and won the three-meter and platform events in the NCAA Zone E Championships in Oklahoma City two weeks ago. He is among the favorites to win all three events this year.

— Alex Espinoza