ARIZONA STATE VS. UNLV
- October 6, 2023
- Mona Plummer Aquatic Center
- Tempe, Arizona
- Results on MeetMobile: “ASU vs. UNLV”
- Team Scores
- Men: ASU 229, UNLV 71
Women: ASU 230, UNLV 70
- Men: ASU 229, UNLV 71
Leon Marchand grabbed headlines with his insane triple against UNLV — featuring nation-leading times in the 200 butterfly (1:39.65), 200 backstroke (1:39.64), and 400 IM (3:37.96) — but there were plenty of other impressive swims from Bob Bowman‘s Arizona State crew on Friday afternoon.
After throwing down NCAA-scoring butterfly times in his NCAA debut last week against Georgia, ASU freshman Ilya Kharun offered a glimpse of his freestyle range with an 18.93 relay anchor, a personal-best 1:35.43 in the 200 free, and an individual victory in the 500 free (4:21.47). The 18-year-old Sandpipers of Nevada product from Canada also split 44.47 on the butterfly leg of the Sun Devils’ victorious 400 medley relay, surpassing the 44.55 that Max McCusker clocked last season at NCAAs en route to ASU’s 3rd-place finish.
Kharun is within a few seconds of what it took to score at NCAAs last season in the 200 free (1:32.61) and about eight seconds away from NCAA scoring territory in the 500 free (4:13.59), but it’s still very early in the season. He dropped more than a second off his previous-best 200 free time of 1:36.46 from last October while coming close to his best 500 free time of 4:20.55 from December of 2021.
Kharun said he’s focusing on “not breathing the first stroke off the wall” in practice.”
“That really slows me down,” he said. “I haven’t swam that race in like two years so I’m still working on that.”
ASU fifth year Jack Dolan won the 100 back (46.30) and 100 free (42.75), edging out junior teammate Patrick Sammon (42.85) in the latter event by a tenth of a second. But Dolan’s 100 back time wasn’t even the Sun Devils’ fastest of the day as sophomore Hubert Kos led off their 400 medley relay with a 46.09 split. ASU is deep in the backstroke department with Kos (46.09), Owen McDonald (46.23 in season opener vs. Georgia), and Dolan (46.30) ranked No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 nationally in the event so far this season.
Individually, Kos also captured the 100 fly title in 46.07, just ahead of Jonny Kulow (46.39), while earning a runner-up finish behind Marchand in the 400 IM (3:45.38). Kulow also had an impressive showing on the Sun Devils’ 200 free relay with an 18.86 split. Michigan graduate transfer Cam Peel split 19.27 and Dolan led off in 19.04 to round out ASU’s 200 free relay. In the individual 50 free showdown, Kulow (19.34) beat Peel (19.89) by more than half a second, but he was faster last week against Georgia (19.31).
McDonald dominated the 200 free with a nation-leading time of 1:33.83, dropping more than a full second off his previous-best 1:34.90 from last November.
On the women’s side, Australian sophomore Charli Brown pulled off an impressive triple for ASU with wins in the 100 back (54.20), 200 back (1:58.34), and 400 IM (4:13.56). She also split 54.54 leading off the Sun Devils’ 400 medley relay (3:37.18), which was only about a second off their 3:35.81 from the 2023 Pac-12 Championships that placed 4th and didn’t qualify for NCAAs.
ASU senior Lindsay Looney won the 200 fly in 1:55.97, the second-fastest time so far this season behind Texas fifth year Kelly Pash‘s 1:52.92, while also contributing a 53.41 fly split to the Sun Devils’ 400 medley relay. Looney placed 4th at NCAAs last season (1:52.25) right behind Pash (1:51.89).
Georgia Tech transfer Deniz Ertan swept the 500 free (4:43.53) and 1000 free (9:38.18) for ASU, with the former time only a couple seconds shy of what it took to score at NCAAs last season (4:40.81). Notably, Ertan was faster than she was at NCAAs last season (4:44.04), but still a couple seconds off her lifetime best of 4:38.04 from February’s ACC Championships.
Zoe Summar triumphed in both the 100 breast (1:00.77) and 200 breast (2:11.77) while Erin Milligan took the 50 free (22.82) and 100 free (49.38). Summar also split 1:00.57 on the breast leg of the Sun Devils’ 400 medley relay while Milligan anchored with a 48.66 free split.
Latvian sophomore Ieva Maluka won the 200 free (1:45.97) and 100 fly (53.72) while also tallying a runner-up finish in the 100 free (49.55) and a 23.06 anchor on ASU’s 200 free relay.
“I felt like today was quite good,” Bowman said. “You know what we really talked about before the meet was we have to swim to our standard all the time, regardless of the conditions , the competition, and who’s in the pool, we need to swim that standard. We did quite well with that today, our relays were excellent. Our women were right off what we swam at Pac-12 last year. I’m super happy with that last relay. The women and the men’s the second off our team relay, which is a very good relay, one of the best in history. So I think we stepped it up through the whole meet. We had some quality swims. Some people obviously like every meet have times where they don’t do as well and there are things to work on and some people did quite well. So I think in general it was a solid meet.”
Bob Bowman is GOAT coach
Bowman is great and I think ASU is the perfect fit for Kharun, but I wouldn’t place too much weight on the 6 weeks of training he has gotten with Bowman. He was the junior world record holder in SCM and 4th at world championships before training there for a second.
the real #1 recruit in the class. recruit rankings should also consider improvement trajectory and how much left an athlete can drop (an estimation, as nothing is definitive)
…massive drop off
7-20: generic Stanford recruits that will do nothing in the pool, NC State recruits that will get sick and then be a relay alternate, generic rich out of state backstrokers for Cal. and then whoever decides to commit somewhere else
Give it a few years then we’ll know. All we know now is how fast they were in HS. Projecting doesn’t mean anything.
18 year old going 44.4 1fly split in October is a movie
gonna be pretty hard for Cal to three-peat this year
lol the Durden taper might have something to say about that
I thought Cal was gonna pick up an easy win this year, but this ASU team is loaded. Best IM group in the country, backstroke is as good or better than Cal, solid sprint free depth along with great relays. The addition of Kharun seriously beefs up their fly group, and if he keeps swimming the 500 he’ll pump up their distance group along with Sarkany and Matheson. They have no breaststroke depth behind Marchand, which is the only area Cal has a real leg up.
Cals sprint free guys are Seeliger and Alexy. ASU can’t compete with those two.
Unlikely ASU beats those two in SCY sprints, but they can ‘compete’ to some degree, especially in terms of points. Seeliger and Alexy unlikely to get past Crooks and Liendo. They were 3rd and 6th last year and one between them now gone. Call them 3rd and 5th this year, worth 30 points. I believe Dolan and Kulow make the top heat this year. Dolan was 7th last year and Kulow moved on to the National Team this summer with a :21.87LCM. Give them 6th and 7th, 25 points. I’d call 30 v 25 points ‘competing.’
Cal’s Liam Bell qualified 16th(13th in final) last year, 0.01 ahead of Kulow. HIs last meet reflected in SwimCloud was NCAAs. He obviously can… Read more »
Possibly fair to criticize the ASU breaststroke depth, but with the advancement of a couple of last year’s freshman and a return to form of a pre-Marchand school record holder, they may be better here than some anticipate.
100 Breast
John Heaphy — former ASU record holder with :51.82 at ’22 Pac-12s. Has been :53.95 (:53.60 relay) v. UNLV and 4×50 MR split against Georgia of :24.06(Marchand :23.74 in same race).
Andy Dobrzanski–solid HS 100 (:54.67 as Jr. and :54.45 as Sr.) and improved to :53.29 at PAC-12 as freshman; against UNLV :53.72 (:52.75 relay). Last year he was eaten up by most the field off the start and walls. Not so much this year. His lower… Read more »
Few things excite me more than an NCAA freshman phenom. The fact they’re so good as a freshman and thinking how fast they could be by the time they’re a senior makes me excited about the future.
My coach used to always tell me that breathing on your first stroke of every lap is like
Dang, so bummed he ended up being Canadian. What a stud!
There’s a kid 2 years younger and already as fast the Americans have. You’ll be alright.
A couple of factual edits for you, Riley.
The :18.86 split you attribute to Ilya was actually :18.93; you properly noted later in the article that :18.86 was done by Kulow.
Also, Dolan is actually now #1 in the country in the 100 Back at :45.47. He’s currently #1 in the 50 Free, 100 Free, 100 Back, back on the 4×50 Medley and was on the 4×50 free and 4×100 free nation leading relays. The 4×100 Medley relay on which he set the top 100 back time was DQd but the referee confirmed his leadoff time was valid and not involved in the DQ. He’d have 3 individual and 4 relay top times if Bowman had chosen to… Read more »
A Dragnet post (“just the facts, ma’am.”) and it gets 7(to date) down votes. Remakable comment crew.