Courtesy: Big 12 Sports
Arizona State’s Ilya Kharun (men’s swimmer), Tommy Palmer (men’s newcomer) and Caroline Bentz (women’s swimmer and newcomer) swept the swimming awards for the Sun Devils as BYU’s Alexia Jackson Hansen (women’s diver) and West Virginia’s Owen Recker (men’s diver) collected the diving awards.
Kharun started his season with three individual wins and added a relay win against UNLV. The sophomore from Las Vegas, Nevada highlighted his meet by touching the pad over five seconds ahead of second place in the 200 fly (1:39.47). Kharun prevailed in the 100 fly (44.57) by over 1.5 seconds and the 200 IM (1:44.57) by more than two seconds. He totaled 38 points for the meet as the Sun Devils defeated UNLV, 217-83.
Bentz collected both the Women’s Swimmer of the Week as well as the Women’s Newcomer of the Week with her performance against the Rebels. The graduate transfer tallied 35 points in the meet with wins in the 200 back (1:55.29), 200 medley relay (1:37.05; 21.64) and 400 free relay (3:18.87; 49.22). Her weekend was spotlighted by her 21.64 split in the 200 medley relay, which broke the school-record that was set in 2019. The King George, Virginia native added a second-place finish in the 100 back (52.68) to complete her events.
Palmer made his Sun Devils debut and earned a top-three finish in all four of his events. The junior transfer from Arizona helped ASU win the 400 free relay (2:51.68) with a 43.28 split and finished runner-up in the 200 medley relay (1:25.35). In his individual events, he achieved second place in the 50 free (19.59) and third place in the 100 fly (46.57) behind only teammates Ilya Kharun, Jonny Kulow, and Filip Senc-Samardzic.
Jackson Hansen opened her season with two victories at the Intermountain Shootout in the 3-meter dive (six dives) and the 1-meter dive (11 dives). In the 3-meter dive, the junior won by over 54 points with a score of 306 and followed that up with a score of 426.53 to sweep the diving competitions. It is her second career Big 12 weekly award after she was named the Big 12 Women’s Diver of the Week in January of last season.
Recker earned two NCAA Zone Diving scores at the West Virginia State Games. The sophomore won the 1-meter dive with a score of 322.80 and finished runner-up on the 3-meter dive (323.55). It is Recker’s first Conference weekly award of his career.
Big 12 Swimming and Diving Weekly Awards- October 9
Men’s Swimmer of the Week
Ilya Kharun, Arizona State
Men’s Diver of the Week
Owen Recker, West Virginia
Men’s Newcomer of the Week
Tommy Palmer, Arizona State
Women’s Swimmer of the Week
Caroline Bentz, Arizona State
Women’s Diver of the Week
Alexia Jackson Hansen, BYU
Women’s Newcomer of the Week
Caroline Bentz, Arizona State
Additional worthy notes:
Kharun – his part in a relay win was a :19.38 50 Butterfly split (PB is :19.29) in the 200 MR.
Palmer’s :43.28 split on the 4×100 Free was a Leadoff leg, not from a rolling start.