Ilya Kharun Swims 46.91, The Third Fastest 100 IM All-Time, As ASU Sweeps All-Arizona Quad

All-Arizona Quad Meet

Arizona State dominated the first quad meet between the four Arizona Division I swimming programs. The men went 2-0 on the day and the women went 3-0 to stay unbeaten through the beginning of the 2024-25 season.

Men’s Meet

Ilya Kharun continues to be on fire this season. After stellar performances in the Sun Devils dual against UNLV—including a 1:39.47 200 fly—the sophomore had another strong performance at this untraditional meet, which featured the 600 freestyle and the 100 IM, along with the 50s and 150s of stroke.

Already this season we’ve seen Hubert Kos add his name to the all-time top 10 list in the 100 IM and Kharun didn’t waste his chance in the event, speeding to a 46.91. Per our records, that’s the third-fastest 100 IM in history and makes Kharun just the third man to break 47 seconds along with Shaine Casas (46.33) and Leon Marchand (46.63).

Kharun was also impressive at home in his butterfly events. He swam a 19.94 50 butterfly, which seems to be the second-fastest flat start 50-yard fly. For reference, the fastest we’ve found is Josh Liendo’s 19.90 to open his 100 fly at the 2024 NCAAs (Caeleb Dressel was out in 19.99 on his NCAA-record swim). Kharun opened his individual events with the 150 fly, winning in 1:12.29. That’s faster than his first 150 yards on his 200 fly PB from last season; there, he was a 1:12.86 on the first 150 yards.

The Sun Devil men had no shortage of event winners on Saturday. Kharun led the group with three but senior Patrick Sammon and freshman Lucien Vergnes each picked up two wins. Sammon won the 150 freestyle in 1:07.24 in a 1-2 finish with Jonny Kulow. Sammon then won the 300 freestyle, outdueling Wildcat freshman Tomas Lukminas (2:30.76).

Verges, a freshman from France, led a 1-2-3-4 Sun Devil finish in the 50 backstroke, swimming 21.75. He’s primarily a breaststroke specialist and picked up the win in the 150 breaststroke, swimming 1:24.07.

Reece Grady (600 free, 5:22.73), Tommy Palmer (50 free, 19.83), and Jono Adam (150 back, 1:14.64) also contributed event wins for the Sun Devils.

It wasn’t all Sun Devils though—the Arizona Wildcats were able to swipe three event wins of their own to lead them to a split meet, losing to ASU but triumphing over GCU. Arizona won both the men’s and women’s 1-meter, with Gage DuBois earning 330.45 points to lead the men. Back in the pool, junior Bryan Wong won the 300 IM in 2:52.48 and senior Daniel Young took the 50 breaststroke with a 24.10.

Women’s Meet

To open the meet, the Sun Devils sent out their school record holders in the 200 medley relay—Miriam Sheehan, Iza Adame, Julia Ulmann, and Caroline Bentz—to take on the 400 medley relay. The quartet swam a 3:34.09, with Sheehan once again nearing the 100 back school record with a 52.64 opening leg. The time is 1.23 seconds off the Sun Devils’ fastest time from last season (3:32.86), which had four different swimmers.

Like the men’s squad, the women had a plethora of event winners, as eight different women touched the wall first for the Sun Devils. Alexa Reyna and Deniz Ertan each had two wins. The sophomore, Reyna, got her first win by beating Ertain in the 600 freestyle, swimming 5:43.08. Ertan won the 150 fly (1:25.84), then the two tied for the win in the 300 freestyle with a 2:46.40. There, Charli Brown clocked 2:46.74, finishing just behind the winning duo.

After winning the opening medley relay, Sheehan won the 50 backstroke in 24.29, leading a 1-2 finish with Bentz, her fellow ACC transfer who won the 150 back for her part (1:22.78). Then, she finished second in the 50 fly behind the freshman Ulmann, 24.18 to 24.29.

Elli Straume (150 free, 1:18.73), Sonia Vaishnani (300 IM, 3:05.24), and Zoe Summar (150 breast, 1:36.22) picked up the other event wins for the Sun Devils as the women went 3-0 on the day.

Arizona won the women’s and men’s 1-meter boards and 50 breaststroke. In the women’s 50 breast, Eleni Gewalt took the win for the Wildcats (28.09). Brooke Earley earned 307.80 points to take first on 1-meter as Arizona lost to ASU, but won against Grand Canyon and NAU. NAU did not win any events, but their depth gave the 11x defending WAC champions the room to beat GCU, 144-137.

Grand Canyon picked up two event wins. Elisa Corradi won the 100 IM, and senior Maria Brunlehner picked up Grand Canyon’s lone event win of the day, swimming 22.57 to win the 50 freestyle ahead of Arizona’s Lexi Duchsherer.