ASU Swim & Dive: Arizona State men’s swim and dive break records to claim back-to-back Pac-12 titles

Arizona State continues its push for dominance over Cal, Stanford in conference titles

FEDERAL WAY, Wash.— Arizona State completed its quest for back-to-back Pac-12 Men’s Swim and Dive titles Saturday as they lapped the competition. The Sun Devils, who won their first conference title last year, beat Stanford by 303 points, the second largest margin of victory in Pac-12 history.

ASU broke three NCAA records, 11 program records and won 16 events over the week-long event.

Sophomore Hubert Kós broke the 200 back record with a finishing time of 1:35.69, a new NCAA record. The record was previously held by four-time Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy of Cal back in 2016.

Kós finished the championships with three individual titles when he won the 100 back and 200 individual medley earlier. He was also a part of the Sun Devils’ 400 team medley that took first place with a conference-record time of 2:58.49.

Junior Léon Marchand, a familiar name and certainly one that will be on your television sets this summer swimming for his native country of France in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, broke the 500 free record on Thursday. His 4:06.18 finishing time broke the previous record set by Kieran Smith of Florida back in 2021 at the SEC championships by 14-tenths of a second.

Marchand won two other individual titles: the 200 breast and the 400 individual medley en route to his third-straight Pac-12 Swimmer of the Meet. He was also a critical member of the NCAA record-breaking 200 team medley relay that finished in 1:20.55. Marchand was also a part of two other Sun Devil records in the 400 free relay and the 400 medley teams and his 40.90 split time in the 400 free set a program record.

Also winning an individual title was sophomore Zalan Sarkany in the 1650 free, beating his record from the year prior with a finishing time of 14:23.01. It is also a new conference record.

A rising freshman from Las Vegas, Ilya Kharun, swept in the butterfly events in his first Pac-12 Championships when he won the 100 meter fly and 200 meter fly, breaking the program record for the 100 fly with a 44.32.

Kharun also swam in all four of the Sun Devil medley, winning the 200 medley, 200 free, 400 medley and 400 free.

Additional conference champions include:

• Sophomore Jonny Kulow: 200 medley relay, 200 free relay, 400 medley relay and 400 free relay
• Graduate student Jack Dolan: 200 medley relay, 50 free, 200 free relay and 400 free relay
• Junior Patrick Sammon: 800 free relay and 200 free
• Graduate student Cam Peel: 200 free relay
• Sophomore Owen McDonald: 800 free relay
• Graduate student Julian Hill: 800 free relay

The Sun Devils divers will compete in Flagstaff, Arizona from March 13-15 in the NCAA Zone E qualifier.

The Sun Devils swimmers will compete in Indianapolis from March 27-30 in the 2024 NCAA Men’s Swimming Championships.