Kharun Splits 19.1 Fly, Kulow 18.3 Free, as Arizona State Men Sprint Through Cal & Stanford

Arizona State vs. Cal vs. Stanford

• November 7-8, 2024
• Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, Tempe, Arizona
• Short Course Yards (25 yards)
• Results on Meet Mobile: “ASU vs. CAL vs. Stanford”
• Team Rankings:
  • Men: #2 Cal, #7 Arizona State (and rising), #8 Stanford
  • Women: #3 Stanford, #8 Cal, NR Arizona State

The defending NCAA Champion Arizona State men kept the throttle wide open on Thursday evening against two of their former Pac-12 rivals Cal and Stanford in a meet that included the team that features the top two teams from last year’s men’s NCAA Championship meet.

The two day meet will resume at 10AM Pacific Time on Friday morning.

Men’s Recap

Scores After Day 1:

• #2 Cal 112 – #8 Stanford 93
• #7 Arizona St 136 – #8 Stanford 69
• #7 Arizona State 127 – #2 Cal 78

It’s a transitional year for the Arizona State men, losing many of their stars and NCAA Champions and their head coach Bob Bowman to the University of Texas.

Those who stayed, however, have continued to rise – especially true for the sprint crew, which new head coach Herbie Behm specializes in.

They opened the meet on Thursday with a 1:21.83 in the 200 medley relay, which is the top time in the country so far – six-tenths better than they were against NC State last week. It’s also now just 1.3 seconds off what they were to place 2nd at last year’s NCAA Championship meet.

That relay included Lucien Vergnes (20.88), Andry Dobrzanski (23.48), Ilya Kharun (19.12), and Jonny Kulow (18.35). The back half of that group is, in short course, the best back-half in the country. Kharun’s split was three-tenths better than he split at NCAAs last year, and only Florida’s Josh Liendo had a faster fly split in March (18.97).

200 medley relay

The Sun Devil sprinters led the way for them throughout the evening. Vergnes, a freshman from France, won the 100 back in 45.32, good for 3rd in the NCAA this year (Texas’ Will Modglin leads the way in 44.81).

Later in the session, Dobrzanski won the 100 breast in 51.92 ahead of a 52.29 from the wildly-versatile Vergnes. Cal freshman Yamato Okadome, who had a breakout career opener in October, was 3rd in 52.47.

The only sprint event on Thursday that the Sun Devils didn’t win was the 100 free, where Cal’s Jack Alexy swam 41.87 to pip Kulow by .02 seconds. They rank 3rd and 4th in the NCAA this year (Arizona State was previously 1-2-3 in the country in that event).

That’s a big early-season marker for the Olympic medalist Alexy, who don’t often put up big markers this early in the season. In the team’s early November dual last year, he was only 43.44 in the 100 free as he typically builds through the spring semester to peak at NCAAs.

Arizona State’s Patrick Sammon was 3rd in 42.00 and Tommy Palmerwas 4th in 42.52.

Men’s 100 free

The best group of 100 freestylers in the country, it was unsurprising that the Arizona State men dominated the session finale in the 400 free relay. They swam 2:46.68 with a relay of Kharun (42.35), Sammon (41.50), Filip Senc-Samardzic (41.75) and Jonny Kulow (41.08). That time is a tenth off what Arizona State went last weekend, though Senc-Samardzic was about seven-tenths better on the third leg.

It wasn’t all sprinting for ASU, though: Kharun also won the 200 fly in 1:39.60 over Stanford’s Andrei Minakov (1:40.86). Kharun is the defending NCAA Champion and Minakov, if he can re-find his stride in short course, is among his biggest challengers to repeat. ASU freshman Michael Hochwalt won the 400 IM in 3:45.33, beating out a field of NCAA qualifiers from last season like Cale Martter, Rick MIhm, Tyler Kopp, and Liam Custer.

Kharun’s 200 fly

Other day 1 winners include Stanford junior Liam Custer in the 1000 free. He split 50.13 on his last 100 to hold off a 49.60 from Arizona State’s Daniel Matheson and give the Cardinal their only men’s swimming win of the day. Custer touched in 8:49.08 and Matheson was 2nd in 8:49.26. Those were best times for both swimmers: Custer by over two seconds and Matheson by almost five.

Cal’s Gabriel Jett swam a complete race to win the 200 free in 1:32.21. He split 45.18/47.03, with the back-half making the difference over runner-up Sammon (1:33.30). For Jett, like Alexy, that’s a way-ahead-of-schedule performance in the fall semester when he’s historically not been much faster than that even at the mid-season invite.

While this Arizona State team is not as deep as the one that won the title last year, they’re showing early this season that they are still a very good program with a lot of good pieces in a lot of different places that’s going to make some noise in March.

Cal’s Josh Thai won the men’s 3-mter diving and Stanford’s Jack Ryan won the 1-meter.

Women’s Recap

Scores After Day 1:

• #3 Stanford 126 – #8 Cal 78
• #3 Stanford 139 – Arizona State 65
• #8 Cal 144 – Arizona State 61

The Cal Golden Bears women got the first win of the day, but the Stanford women continued their big momentum from the end of last season and won 7 of the 9 swimming events of the day to presumably lead the scores after the meet’s first day.

Sophomore Caroline Bricker, who was one of the biggest breakouts in the NCAA last season as a freshman, won both the 200 fly (1:54.02) and 400 IM (4:08.42) on Thursday.  She was very good early in the season last year as well, but her 200 fly time was even faster than she was in the entire fall semester as a freshman.

Bricker’s season ended at the NCAA Championships with a 4th place finish in the 400 IM after dropping more than seven seconds in her inaugural collegiate season.

Women’s 200 fly

The sign of a big performance is when Bricker gets top billing over her Olympic teammate Torri Huske. Huske, the Olympic champion in the 100 fly won the individual 100 free on Thursday in 47.84, beating out Cal freshman Mary-Ambre Moluh; later in the session, Huske led off Stanford’s winning 400 free relay in 47.62. She also swam the backstroke leg of the 2nd place Cardinal 200 medley relay, splitting 24.35.

Moluh is a bit of a developing story for Cal. The freshman from France broke a pile of age group records in her home country in backstroke races, but has been focused almost-exclusively on freestyle for Cal. She anchored their winning 200 medley relay as well (splits unavailable, but the final time was 1:35.28 for 3rd in the NCAA this season).

While Cal is a bit thin in freestyle sprinters this season, it has 5th year Isabelle Stadden as one of the best backstrokers in the country, so Moluh’s move may be as much out of necessity as anything. Stadden won the 100 back on Thursday in 51.33, beating out ASU senior transfer Caroline Bentz (52.99).

Stadden’s swim ranks her 7th in the NCAA this season.

Women’s 100 back

Other Stanford winners include Kayla Wilson in the 200 free, touching in 1:44.81 to beat out Cal All-American and Olympian Lea Polonsky (1:45.32). Wilson is the front of what could be a very good Stanford 800 free relay this season, depending on how they decide to allocate their relay pieces in March.

Stanford senior Aurora Roghair, another revelation last season who came within a few places of making the U.S. Olympic Team, won the 1000 free in 9:28.61. That’s a best time by six-tenths of a second, though she’s still ranked as the 23rd-best performer of all-time in the event.

Arizona State sophomore Alexa Reyna had one of the Sun Devil women’s best performances of the day to finish 2nd in that 1000 free in 9:40.78, which is a lifetime best for her as well by just over half-a-second.

Lucy Thomas dipped under 1 minute for the first time this season to win the 100 breaststroke in 59.53.

Stanford also swept the springboard diving events, with senior Lauren Burch winning on 1-meter and senior Maria Papwroth winning on 3-meter.