The Arizona State men showed their sprint prowess Thursday night with seven men splitting 19-seconds or faster in the 200 freestyle relay. Jonny Kulow led the way with an 18.19 on the team’s ‘A’ relay as the anchor, just off his split of 18.11 from 2024 NCAAs.
ASU Top Splits Men’s 200 Free Relay
- Jonny Kulow, 18.19
- Tommy Palmer, 18.42
- Ilya Kharun, 18.52 (lead off)
- Quin Seider, 18.78
- Patrick Sammon, 18.81
- Tiago Behar, 19.08
- Tolu Young, 19.08
The team’s 200 freestyle relay finished 4th last year at NCAAs in a 1:13.95, a time that the ‘A’ relay surpassed tonight as they touched in a 1:13.93. Notably, the team had two members of its NCAA relay graduate with Cam Peel and Jack Dolan. Sammon and Palmer have since taken those spots in the ‘A’ relay.
Success for the ASU sprint program does not come at much of a surprise as the training base is also home to sprinter Olivia Smoliga and Michael Andrew made the move to Tempe earlier this fall. Herbie Behm is currently in his first season at head coach for the Sun Devils after Bob Bowman departed at the start of April to take the job as Director of Swimming at Texas.
In addition to the continued success in sprint freestyle, Ilya Kharun has also shown improvement this fall already. The sophomore got under his previous best time of a 18.59, posting a 18.52 tonight. He also already swam a lifetime best in the 100 fly this season with a 43.95 in a dual meet against NC State last month.
The :18.52 by Kharun is an ASU school record; the benchmark previously was jointly held by Kharun and Dolan at :18.59.
Thursday, 11-20-24 — ASU 50 Freestyles, between 4 x 50 and individual 50
R = Rolling start; LO relay lead-off;
Ilya Kharun :18.51 LO (School Record individually and opened for relay school record 1:13.93)
Kulow :18.19 R (:18.78 flat)
Palmer :18.42 R (:19.23 flat)
Sammon :18.81 R (:19.40 flat)
Seider :18.78 R (:19.45 PB flat)
Behar :19.06 R (:19.68 flat)
Young :19.08 R (:19.72 flat)
Osternodrf :19.57 PB LO
Wadsworth :19.62 PB LO
Senc-Samardzic :19.62 PB flat (was not on a relay)
And a bit slower but still noteworthy as each of the next two men broke :20.00 for the first time flat start:
Roden :19.33 R (:19.95… Read more »
It should be noted that Christian Osterndorf split 18.94 at the ASU vs. Cal Stanford tri meet
It is rumored they call him “the CEO” 🤯
It is going to very interesting to see ASU in this meet. I suspect they are going to surprise many people!