ASU Swept the Titles in New Conference: Women Win First Ever Title, Men Win 3rd Straight

2025 BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

• 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
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3| Day 4 | Day 5

The Big 12 Championships wrapped up tonight, and it wasn’t Texas at the top of both leaderboards for the first time in over a decade, but we might be getting a new Big 12 powerhouse.

Arizona State teams ran away with the overall team titles on the men’s and the women’s side in their first year in the conference with first-year head coach Herbie Behm. For the men, this is their third straight conference title (they won the last two Pac-12 Championships).

On the women’s side, this win marks their first conference title since they left the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and the Western Collegiate Athletic Association (another women’s only organization) to join the NCAA in 1981.

Women’s Meet Recap:

The ASU women first joined the NCAA in 1981 after competing for 24 years in women’s only athletics organizations. Since they became an NCAA team, they have never finished better than 2nd place, which they did one time in 1994. Until this year.

At this year’s championships, the ASU women had an almost perfect meet, putting the most swimmers into ‘A’ finals every single day of the meet. They won all but four swimming events, putting up 1695 points to come in 455 ahead of first place.

The Sun Devils were bolstered by performances from freshman Julia Ullmann and transfer Caroline Bentz and a heap of returning swimmers such as Charli Brown, Deniz Ertan, and Sonia Vaishnani.

Individual Event Winners:

• 50 Free: Caroline Bentz – 21.77
• 200 Free: Erin Milligan – 1:45.41
• 500 Free: Alexa Reyna – 4:39.24
• 1650 Free: Deniz Ertan – 16:01.31
• 100 Back: Caroline Bentz – 51.22
• 200 Back: Caroline Bentz – 1:51.89
• 100 Fly: Julia Ullmann – 51.40
• 200 Fly: Deniz Ertan – 1:54.92
• 200 IM: Charli Brown – 1:57.84
• 400 IM: Sonia Vaishnani – 4:10.28
• Platform: Kayden Hayes – 251.60

2025 Scores:

1. Arizona State- 1695
2. Arizona- 1240
3. Houston- 1211.5
4. Texas Christian- 854
5. Utah- 809.5
6. Cincinnati- 800.5
7. Brigham Young- 761.5
8. Kansas- 542
9. West Virginia- 409
10. Iowa State- 397

Texas won last year’s title 825 points over the University of Houston. This year’s margin was far smaller than that, but still pretty significant with the race for 2nd between Houston and Arizona with Arizona ultimately coming out on top.

ASU Women’s Big 12 Championship Roster:

The Sun Devil women were divided well among all four classes, with their sophomore class being the biggest with eight athletes on the roster.

Caroline Bentz led the team with three individual event titles in the 50 free, 100 back, and 200 back. She was the only swimmer in the meet to win all three of her individual events and score a perfect 96 points.

Men’s Meet Recap

The ASU men won their third straight conference title, and their first Big 12 title in their first year in the Big 12 Championships, absolutely annihilating the competition. This was their first step to an NCAA title repeat this year.

While this win was new territory for ASU, competing in the Big 12 this year, it was also new territory for the Big 12. No team other than Texas has ever won a Big 12 conference title, after 28 years, they finally have a new conference champion.

The men had an almost perfect meet. Winning all but two events, the 200 freestyle relay, they were disqualified on night three, and the 200 backstroke

Individual Event Winners

• 50 Free: Jonny Kulow – 18.64
• 100 Free: Jonny Kulow – 41.07
• 200 Free: Patrick Sammon – 1:31.57
• 500 Free: Daniel Matheson – 4:14.37
• 1650 Free: Daniel Matheson – 14:46.53
• 100 Back: Jack Wadsworth – 45.01
• 100 Breast: Andy Dobrzanski – 51.75
• 200 Breast: Andy Dobrzanski – 1:51.93
• 100 Fly: Ilya Kharun – 44.13
• 200 Fly: Ilya Kharun – 1:39.41
• 200 IM: Cale Martter – 1:42.93
• 400 IM: Michael Hochwald – 3:41.40

Final Scores

1. Arizona State- 1912
2. Arizona- 1301
3. Utah- 1153.5
4. Texas Christian- 1088.5
5. Brigham Young- 960
6. Cincinnati- 923
7. West Virginia- 570

ASU Men’s Big 12 Title Team

The men’s title winning team is led by a very strong freshman class that is supported at the back end by a very deep and experienced senior class.

They also have strong swimmers spread throughout. Ilya Kharun is a sophomore, and he won two individual events, and finished 2nd in the 50 freestyle.

Junior Jonny Kulow also had an exceptional meet so far, winning the 50 and 100 freestyles and finishing 2nd in the 200 freestyle. He was also a crucial member of the ASU relay teams that won almost all the events.

Daniel Matheson was the other swimmer who won two events and finished 2nd in the other, winning the 500 and 1650 freestyles, and finishing 2nd in the 400 IM.

After this weekend, one thing has been proven. ASU is not worse for the wear after losing Bob Bowman last year. Herbie Behm has maintained the championship caliber swimmers we saw on the men’s side last year while developing a conference winning women’s team. With the talent they have remaining after this year on both sides, the Sun Devils have the potential to become a school that is always in the conversation for National and Conference titles.