WATCH: Simone Manuel Earns Promising 200 Free Win (1:43.15); Regan Smith Swims 2 Best Times

ARIZONA STATE VS. UNLV

• October 6, 2023
• Mona Plummer Aquatic Center
  • Tempe, Arizona
• SCY (25 yards)
• Results on MeetMobile: “ASU vs. UNLV”
• Team Scores
  • Men: ASU 229, UNLV 71
    Women: ASU 230, UNLV 70
• More on Leon Marchand’s insane 200 back/200 fly/400 IM triple
• More on the NCAA results from this meet

The most exciting race from Arizona State’s dual meet against UNLV may have actually come courtesy of the Sun Devils’ stacked pro group swimming during intermissions instead of the lopsided collegiate matchup.

The women’s 200-yard freestyle showdown between 27-year-old Olympic champion Simone Manuel, 21-year-old world champion Regan Smith, and 24-year-old NCAA champion Paige Madden came down to the wire on Friday afternoon.

Manuel, who has only been back training for about a year after suffering from overtraining syndrome in the wake of the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, went into the final 50 in 3rd place (1:17.10) behind Madden (1:16.97) and Smith (1:16.60). But Manuel saved her best for last, using some impressive closing speed to capture a comeback win in 1:43.15. It was her first time contesting the SCY 200 free since her 3rd-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Championships (1:41.48), with her lifetime best sitting at 1:40.37 from 2017.

Smith, who jumped from Stanford to ASU last August — two weeks before Manuel made the same move — was just a tenth of a second behind in 1:43.25, shaving .02 seconds off her lifetime best from 2018. Madden placed 3rd in 1:43.84, only about a second and a half off her personal-best 1:42.35 that won her the NCAA title in 2021.

Manuel also swam the 100 free on Friday, finishing 2nd in 47.37 just a blink behind two-time Olympian Olivia Smoliga (47.36). The 28-year-old Smoliga was about a second shy of her personal-best 46.30 from the 2017 NCAA Championships, where she placed 2nd behind Manuel (45.56).

Smith set another personal best on Friday in the 200 IM with a 1:55.72, dropping almost a full second off her previous-best 1:56.58 from 2018. She split 25.07 on the butterfly leg, 27.77 on the backstroke leg, 35.55 on the breaststroke leg, and 27.33 on the freestyle leg. Compared to her previous best, Smith was actually slower on the first two legs but split more than a second faster on the breaststroke leg and brought it home faster on the freestyle anchor as well.

In the same heat as Smith’s 200 IM, Madden posted a 1:58.65 200 fly, exactly a second off her best time from 2019.

Smoliga posted the only NCAA ‘A’ cut-worthy time of the pro session with a 50.70 100 back, within a second of her personal-best 50.04 from 2017.

On the men’s side, Olympic champion Chase Kalisz held off Grant House and Jay Litherland in the 200 IM.

House was out fastest on the butterfly and backstroke legs before Kalisz caught him on the breaststroke leg (29.55 vs. 30.92). House tightened the gap on the final freestyle anchor with a 24.71 split, but Kalisz’s 24.87 split was enough to get his hand on the wall first in 1:43.88. House was only .13 seconds away from the win in 1:44.01, beating Litherland (1:46.76) by more than two seconds.

House’s best 200 IM time is a 1:40.53 from 2022 while Kalisz’s lifetime best is a 1:41.19 from 2014.

The 29-year-old Kalisz, 25-year-old House, and 28-year-old Litherland also went to battle in the 200 fly. Kalisz pulled out the victory in 1:42.77, but both House (1:44.79) and Litherland (1:45.36) tallied lifetime bests in the process.

Former Texas standout Drew Kibler swam the SCY 200 free for the first time since winning the 2022 NCAA title (1:30.28) over House (1:30.68), clocking a 1:33.46. Former Air Force star Wen Zhang placed 2nd behind Kibler in 1:37.56, well off his personal-best 1:31.42 from February. Zhang appears to be a relatively new arrival to Bob Bowman‘s pro group in Tempe. SwimSwam has reached out to him for more info.

In the 100 free, Kibler also beat Zhang (45.08) with a time of 43.23, within a couple seconds of his personal-best 41.33 from last year.