Watch: Zalan Sarkany, Ilya Kharun Scare NCAA Records to Kick Off Dual Meet at Stanford

Stanford vs. Arizona State

  • Jan. 19, 2024
  • Avery Aquatic Center
    • Stanford, California
  • SCY (25 yards)
  • Results on MeetMobile: “Arizona State @ Stanford”

The top-ranked Arizona State men are coming for the last two NCAA records remaining on the books by Texas swimmers.

ASU sophomore Zalan Sarkany began Friday’s dual meet at Stanford by blasting a personal-best 8:38.13 in the 1000-yard freestyle, just about four seconds shy of former Longhorns standout Clark Smith’s NCAA record (8:33.93) from 2015. It’s just the second collegiate meet of the season for Sarkany, who trained back home in Hungary this past fall.


Sarkany shaved more than eight seconds off his previous-best 8:46.42 from earlier this month, which also stood as the school record until today. The 20-year-old distance specialist has dropped more than 11 seconds off his best 1000 free time before this season. Last year as a freshman, he placed 8th at NCAAs in the 1650 free (14:42.80).

Sarkany wasn’t the only Sun Devil who scared an NCAA record at Stanford. ASU freshman Ilya Kharun clocked a winning time of 1:37.83 in the 200 butterfly, dipping into sub-1:38 territory for the first time in his career. The versatile Canadian is now within half a second of former Texas standout Jack Conger’s NCAA record (1:37.35) from 2017.

Kharun sliced almost two-tenths off his previous-best 1:38.11 from November, which already would have won the NCAA title last spring over NC State’s Aiden Hayes (1:38.79). He has dropped more than three seconds throughout the course of this season as his best time before arriving in Tempe was a 1:40.89 from last February.

In a potential preview of the NCAA title matchup this spring, Stanford junior Andrei Minakov earned a runner-up finish behind Kharun with a personal-best time of 1:38.63. That’s a huge lifetime best for Minakov, knocking almost four seconds off his previous-best 1:42.57 from last January. He led through the first three turns (1:12.39 vs. 1:12.86) before Kharun blazed home with a 25.07 split on his last 50 yards compared to Minakov’s 26.24.

Kharun also contributed a blistering 19.35 fly split on the Sun Devils’ 200 medley relay that triumphed with a time of 1:22.24. Kharun’s split was just off his season-best 19.24 from the NC State Invitational in November and faster than every split at NCAAs last year except for NC State’s Nyls Korstanje and Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks.

Stay tuned for a full dual meet recap coming soon.

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Michael Andrew Wilson
5 months ago

1:33.9 was 5th place in the 200 free, and 1:38.6 was 2nd in the 200 fly in a dual meet in January. What??????

Willswim
5 months ago

If Marchand swims 100 breast at conference, and also leads off the 800 free relay at NCAAs then it’s not crazy to envision a world where soon ASU and Florida hold every individual event NCAA record.

Sapiens Ursus
5 months ago

Just dual meet things…

Facts
5 months ago

Who would win in a hypothetical dual meet between this ASU team and 2017 Texas?

Last edited 5 months ago by Facts
Andrew
Reply to  Facts
5 months ago

obviously this ASU team due to swimflation, but relative to eras, I still think 2017 Texas was further ahead of their collegiate competition than ASU is this year

Conger, Licon, Schooling, Townley, Roberts, Ringgold, Clark Smith, Shebat, I mean….

Grant Drukker
Reply to  Facts
5 months ago

ASU

Michael Andrew Wilson
5 months ago

Damn 😲🔥

Diehard
5 months ago

Dreary weather. At Cal, it is raining…not sure about Stanford. I can’t tell.
I am just as impressed by Stanford men. They are swimming very well too!

Retired coach
Reply to  Diehard
5 months ago

Cold and sprinkles at times. Thought Stanford was also impressive.

Samuel Huntington
5 months ago

What 1:37 from Kharun and 1:38 from Minakov?!?

Reilly
Reply to  Samuel Huntington
5 months ago

Are they aware that this is a Dual meet?

Joe
Reply to  Samuel Huntington
5 months ago

Minakov 44.17 and Kharun 44.72 in the 100 fly. Wild times for January

Diehard
Reply to  Joe
5 months ago

Stanford men won the 4free relay too! Minakov beat Kulow even though he went in a bit after…his walls were just better than Kulow’s.

Last edited 5 months ago by Diehard
DLswim
Reply to  Joe
5 months ago

Swum after the epic 200 fly, in the rain

Alex Wilson
Reply to  Samuel Huntington
5 months ago

The two of them were obviously gunning for each other which is great! Epically in a dual meet! Great to see A cut times in a dual meet!

Buttafly
Reply to  Samuel Huntington
5 months ago

Made my eyes almost pop out of my skull

Alex Wilson
Reply to  Samuel Huntington
5 months ago

Both untapered also!

Justin Pollard
Reply to  Alex Wilson
5 months ago

You sure?

J Money
5 months ago

what the fffffffff

About Riley Overend

Riley is an associate editor interested in the stories taking place outside of the pool just as much as the drama between the lane lines. A 2019 graduate of Boston College, he arrived at SwimSwam in April of 2022 after three years as a sports reporter and sports editor at newspapers …

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