Ilya Kharun Goes Third Sub-51 in the 100 Fly in Two Weeks; Caroline Bricker Breaks Through

2025 Sun Devil Open

• May 16-18, 2025
• Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, Tempe, Arizona
• Long Course Meters (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results on Meet Mobile: “2025 Sun Devil Open”
• Live Recaps: Day 1

A sub-51 second 100 fly from Canadian Ilya Kharun and a huge time drop from Stanford’s Caroline Bricker highlighted the second day of the 2025 Sun Devil Elite Invitational.

In the men’s 100 fly, Kharun swam 50.93 to grab the win, following a lifetime best of 50.42 to win two weeks ago at the Pro Swim in Ft. Lauderdale. Until this month, he had only been sub-51 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but with a seeming shift in focus to the shorter butterflies under first year Arizona State head coach Herbie Behm, Kharun has now done so three times before Canada’s Trials meet.

Canada will hold their World Championship Trials June 7-12, the week after the Americans.

Kharun’s teammate Jonny Kulow finished 2nd in 53.28, and U.S. Olympian Michael Andrew finished 3rd in 54.04.

Andrew’s splitting in the final was 24.01/30.03, and the swim was .55 seconds slower than he was in prelims. In the morning, he swam a 53.49, splitting 24.73/28.76, and an aggressive opening in the evening session cost him at the end.

His second 50 in finals was second-worst in the field. Andrew’s finishing pace has been a big topic in his first season departing from his father Peter Andrew and their USRPT training method to train with Behm at Arizona State.

In the women’s 100 fly, Olympic gold medalist Torri Huske touched in 58.01 after a 56.59 at the Pro Swim two weeks ago.

Huske is poised for a coaching change at Stanford after head coach Greg Meehan left to take a role as the U.S. National Team Director; Meehan has been writing workouts for Huske and others, with his assistants Katie Robinson and Kim Williams executing those workouts.

French swimmer Marie Wattel, now training at Arizona State, finished 2nd in the 100 fly in 59.35. She’s the French Record holder, and France has the last major World Championship Trials in the world from June 14-17.

While Huske had a pretty big falloff from her last swim, teammate Caroline Bricker was locked in on Saturday.

Bricker won the 400 IM in 4:42.38, which took more than three seconds off her previous personal best of 4:45.68 that she swam in Ft. Lauderdale. Prior to this month, her best long course time was a 4:46.44 done at Junior Nationals in 2021.

Bricker has flourished at Stanford and won the NCAA title in the 400 IM in March. She didn’t swim the 400 IM at last year’s Olympic Trials, focusing on the 100 fly, 200 fly, and 200 IM.

But as a valuable data point: in her last meet before last year’s Olympic Trials, she went a best time in the 200 fly, and then four weeks later was even faster in Indianapolis. While the timing was a bit different, the big drops in Ft. Lauderdale and now Tempe don’t necessarily indicate a premature peak.

The Arizona Wildcats are following a good first short course year under new head coach Ben Loorz with a good start to the long course season as well.

Rising senior Eleni Gewalt won the 100 breaststroke in her first meet since the NCAA Championships. She swam 1:09.56, which took almost four-tenths off her best time from April 2024.

Her teammate and rising junior Tommy Palmer was 4th in the 100 fly in 54.06, which took half-a-second off his lifetime best (done at this meet last year).

Other Saturday Highlights:

• Canadian Taylor Ruck won the 50 back to start the session (28.87) and the 100 back to end the session (1:00.93). She swam 1:00.03 in Ft. Lauderdale.
• Michael Andrew picked up a win in the 50 back in 25.43. That added to prior wins in the 50 breast (27.31); he has the 50 fly remaining to swim on Sunday.
• After her win in the 100 fly, Torri Huske won the 200 free in 1:59.22. Kayla Wilson was 2nd in 2:01.41.
• Lucy Thomas of Stanford had the fastest women’s 100 breaststroke of the day, swimming 1:09.29 in heats. She added time to finish 2nd in 1:10.17 in finals.
• Arizona State’s Andy Dobrzanski swam a lifetime best of 1:01.03, which inserts him into a wide open men’s 100 breaststroke field for Trials. That knocks .09 seconds off his best time from last year’s Olympic Trials. He placed 3rd at the NCAA Championships in yards. His time was .05 seconds faster than what Nate Germonprez went in Austin this weekend – Germonprez is another contender for one of the two spots on the World Championship team.
• JT Ewing, freshly arrived in Tempe after announcing a transfer from NC State to Arizona State, swam 56.47 to win the 100 back. That’s 1.14 seconds shy of his best time from 2022.