2025 Big 12 Championships: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2025 Big 12 Championship

• February 25 – March 1, 2025
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center — Federal Way, Wash.
• SCY (25 Yards)
• Start Times: prelims – 10 am PT/finals – 6 pm PT
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheet
• Livestream: ESPN+
• Live Results
• Night 1 Heat Sheet

For the first time in Big 12 history, there will be new teams crowned Swimming and Diving Champions as tonight marks the start of the first championships since the departure of Texas to the SEC. In the absence of the Longhorns, however, there will certainly not be an absence of talent as this meet will also feature Big 12 newcomers Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah from the PAC-12 conference.

Of these teams, Arizona State will be the one to watch, especially on the men’s side. The defending NCAA Champions, ASU lost several of their stars with the departure of Bob Bowman to Texas. However, the team retained enough depth to remain in contention for an NCAA title next month, with this meet serving as a major stepping-stone.

Tonight’s finals session will kick-off this historic meet with the men’s and women’s 200 medey and 800 freestyle relays, along with the team diving events.

In both the men’s and women’s 200 medley relays, ASU enters as the top seed. On the men’s side, ASU leads the field by 3 seconds with their entry time of 1:21.63. Even after the first two weekends of Championship meets, that time still ranks 5th in the NCAA this season. The ASU women are entered with a 1:35.69, setting themselves up for a battle with Cincinnati (1:36.90).

A similar story is aligned in the 800 freestyle relay, with ASU once-again leading both fields. For the women, ASU leads with an entry time of 7:09.91, almost 6 seconds ahead of the field. Meanwhile, the men’s race is shaping up to be a lot closer, with ASU entered in a 6:13.18, only .13 ahead of the University of Arizona (6:13.31).

The team diving event will be an interesting feature for the championship. An event that is not normally contested at the NCAA level, each team will field 3 divers in an attempt to have the highest combined score.

Women’s 200 Medley Relay

• NCAA Record: 1:31.73 (2/14/2023, Virginia)
• Big 12 Record: 1:33.22 (3/15/2023, University of Texas)
• Meet Record: 1:34.04 (2/23/2022, University of Texas)
• NCAA “A” Cut: 1:36.24

Results:

1.  ASU – 1:35.63
2.  Cincinnati/Arizona – 1:36.16
3.  –
4.  Houston – 1:37.85
5.  TCU – 1:38.26
6.  BYU – 1:38.94
7.  Utah – 1:38.98
8.  Kansas – 1:39.33
9.  Iowa St. – 1:39.96
10. WVU – 1:41.00

ASU opened their first Big 12 Championships with a win as the team of Miriam Sheehan, Iza Adame, Julia Ullmann, and Caroline Bentz combined for a time of 1:35.63 to win in a close finish. The touch for second was actually the closest of all as Cincinnati and Arizona touched simultaneously for the silver medal, both finishing in 1:36.16. Though Cincinnati was ahead at the 100 yard mark thanks to a 25.75 split on the breaststroke leg from Joleigh Crye, Arizona brought it back over the final 100 with Lexi Duchsherer closing the gap over the freestyle leg via a 21.55 split.

All three teams dipped under the NCAA A-cut of 1:36.24, qualifying their relays for the NCAA Championships next month.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

• NCAA Record: 1:20.15 (3/27/2024, Florida)
• Big 12 Record: 1:21.36 (3/23/2022, University of Texas)
• Meet Record: 1:22.24 (2/23/2022, University of Texas)
• NCAA “A” Cut: 1:23.62

Results:

1. ASU – 1:21.16 **New Conference and Meet rEcord.
2. Arizona – 1:23.79
3. TCU – 1:24.41
4. BYU – 1:24.57
5. Utah – 1:26.73
6. Cincinnati – 1:26.90
7. WVU – 1:27.18

One event down for the ASU men, one new Big 12 Record established as the team of Lucien Vergnes, Andy Dobrzanski, Ilya Kharun, and Jonny Kulow threw down a time of 1:21.16 to break Texas’ 2022 Conference Record of 1:21.36 and Meet Record of 1:22.24. Vergnes got the team started with a 20.66 split on the backstroke, handing Dobrzanski on the breaststroke (23.10). Both swimmers were faster on their splits than they were at mid-season. Kharun then threw down a 19.21 on the butterfly before Kulow split 18.19 to close out the relay on the freestyle leg.

ASU was the only team to dip under the NCAA A-cut in the event, as Arizona finished 2nd in a 1:23.79, just missing the cut by a tenth of a second.

Women’s Team Diving

• Big 12 Record: 376.20 (2/28/2024, Texas)
• Meet Record: 376.20 (2/28/2024, University of Texas)

Results:

1. Houston – 306.00
2. Utah – 295.30
3. TCU – 284.80

The team diving competition featured a fierce 3-way battle on the women’s side, with all three of the teams finishing within reach of each other. Ultimately, Houston came out on top with a score of 306 thanks to strong performances on their final dives of the night. Utah managed to finish 2nd with 295.30 points, ahea of TCU (284.80).

Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay

• NCAA Record: 6:44.13 (2/18/2025, Virginia)
• Big 12 Record: 6:53.42 (3/14/2018, University of Texas)
• Meet Record: 6:56.49 (2/22/2023, University of Texas)
• NCAA “A” Cut: 7:00.86

Full Results:

1. ASU- 7:04.24
2. Arizona- 7:11.07
3. Houston- 7:11.96
4. Cincinnati- 7:13.85
5. BYU- 7:13.87
6. Utah- 7:14.71
7. TCU- 7:16.86
8. West Virginia- 7:17.18
9. Kansas- 7:19.56
10. Iowa State- 7:27.25

The Sun Devil women go 2-for-2 on relays on night 1 of Big 12s. They also had the only women who went faster than 1:46 in the field. Erin Milligan led the team off in 1:44.49, a little over half a second drop from her previous best of 1:45.12 from last March. Charli Brown went 2nd at 1:45.70, and she handed it off to Grace Lindberg who split 1:47.00. Alexa Reyna brought them home at 1:47.05 to touch in 7:04.28. They won the event by almost seven seconds over the 2nd place team Arizona who touched in 7:11.07.

Arizona and Houston had a battle for 2nd place, with Arizona coming out on top in 7:11.07 to Houston’s 7:11.96. Malia Rausch led off for the Wildcats, splitting 1:47.49 to come in just ahead of the Houston Cougars’ Liya Goupil‘s 1:47.66.

The 2nd leg went the opposite direction with Amalie Mortensen of Arizona splitting 1:49.13 to drop the lead to Evelyn Entrekin‘s 1:48.05 for Houston, putting the Cougars in the lead for 2nd place by almost a second.

We saw that positioning switch again with the 3rd legs of Kayman Neal(Arizona- 1:46.64) and Elizabeth Jimenez (Houston- 1:48.37). The anchor legs were a wash, with the women splitting just seven one-hundredths apart. Julia Wozniak brought the Wildcats home in 1:47.81 to finish 2nd overall and Sienna Bruner swam 1:47.88 to finish 3rd for the Cougars.

Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay

• NCAA D1 Record: 6:02.26 (3/27/2024, California)
• Big 12 Record: 6:03.42 (3/22/2023, University of Texas)
• Meet Record: 6:08.76 (2/23/2022, University of Texas)
• NCAA “A” Cut: 6:15.80

Full Results:

1. ASU- 6:08.54 **New Meet Record**
2. Arizona- 6:10.62
3. Utah- 6:18.04
4. BYU-6:19.94
5. TCU- 6:20.58
6. West Virginia- 6:24.88
7. Cincinnati- 6:25.91

With this swim, ASU goes 4-for-4 on swimming events this evening, winning the event in a new meet record time of 6:08.54.

ASU started the race behind Arizona, who front-loaded their relay. Tiago Behar went first, splitting 1:32.25, which was a second behind Arizona’s Ralph Daleiden Ciuferri who went 1:31.48 on the opening leg.

Quin Seider swam the Sun Devils’ 2nd leg in 1:32.28, which was still not faster than Arizona’s 2nd swimmer Tomas Lukminas who went 1:31.24.

The tide changed with the 3rd swimmers. Filip Senc-Samardzic went 1:32.12 for ASU and Lars Kuljus split 1:34.30 for Arizona. This was enough to put ASU in the lead by a little under half-a-second.

The anchor legs followed the same pattern as the 3rd legs. ASU’s Patrick Sammon split 1:31.89 to bring the Sun Devils home two tenths under the meet record time of 6:08.76. Haakon Naughton from Arizona went 1:33.60 as the last leg for Arizona, stopping the team clock at 6:10.62.  There were almost eight seconds between Arizona in 2nd and Utah in 3rd.

Men’s Team Diving

• Big 12 Record: 406.45 (2/27/2024 University of Texas)
• Meet Record: 406.45 (2/27/2024 University of Texas

Top 3 Teams:

1. TCU- 4:07.45 **New Meet and Conference Record**
2. Arizona- 340.55
3. West Virginia- 336.80

The TCU men’s divers broke the conference and meet records in their team diving event, scoring a total of 407.45 points to win the event by more than 60 points over Arizona.

Team Scores After Day 1

Women

1. Houston- 170
2. ASU- 168
3. Arizona- 157
4. Utah/BYU/Utah- 150
5. —
6. —
7. Cincinnati- 141
8. Kansas- 134
9. WVU/ Iowa State- 122

Men

1. ASU- 176
2. TCU/Arizona- 168
3. —
4. BYU- 156
5. Utah- 154
6. West Virginia- 148
7. Cincinnati- 140