After years of evolution, Sun Devils men primed for first NCAA title

(Photo via Xavier Litman/WCSN)

Fresh of another Pac-12 Conference title, ASU men’s swim will head to Indiana on the hunt for its first national title. The Sun Devils are hoping that the NCAA championships, which begin on Wednesday, will serve as the ideal finale to their near-perfect season.

In what is likely the most anticipated meet of the year, the Sun Devil men are the overwhelming favorites to win it all at this year’s NCAA championships. In addition, the Devils are coming into the meet fresh off multiple record-breaking performances and their second-straight Pac-12 Conference title.

Although the Devils have never achieved a national-champion caliber of greatness before, the trio of freshman Ilya Kharun, sophomore Hubert Kós, and junior Léon Marchand will lead the team in its quest to make NCAA history.

“We’re very happy to win the last Pac-12s. We put our name in the history books for that,” head coach Bob Bowman said. “But what we really want to do is take the swimming that we did there, learn from it, and then come back into the training and use that information to be better next time when we swim in Indy.”

Currently, the Devils are ranked first in 12 of the 18 events contested at nationals, so using what they have learned in their races from Pac-12s can help them maintain their dominance and continue their path to success.

With multiple high-pressure races approaching for the Devils, a few years of experience swimming on the NCAA championship stage can be a huge advantage. However, newcomer Kharun has already learned a lot from the team despite being a Sun Devil for only a season.

“They push me to my limit,” Kharun said. “They always try to motivate me to do better. Just being around these guys makes me a whole different swimmer, and you just have to be a part of it to experience it.”

Speaking of being a whole different swimmer, Kós has had a monumentally developmental season. Kós is back and better than ever for the Sun Devils, and he can now add his shiny, new individual Pac-12 titles to his impressive repertoire. The sophomore will be entering the championship with more focus this year, especially considering his role in the Devils’ goal of claiming the national title.

“I think all of us really know what’s going to come next, and we know exactly what we have to do in the next step,” Kós said. “It’s not really going to be that easy because we figured that out last year. So I think there’s a new level of focus that we’re bringing to the table this year that we didn’t have last year, and I hope that it’s going to help us succeed.”

Sun Devil standout Marchand is set to have another outstanding NCAA performance. After choosing the 500-yard freestyle event instead of the 200-yard individual medley for this year’s conference championship, the Frenchman will look to prove why he is one of the most versatile collegiate swimmers in history. Aside from his unusual event lineup, Marchand has experienced much success in his collegiate swimming career. Still, he believes that winning the national title is an accomplishment the Sun Devils can only achieve together.

“I think just winning NCAAs would be amazing for the team,” Marchand said. “I’ve won some stuff myself individually, and the first thing I wanted to do was share stuff with my family, my coach, or my teammates, and that’s what NCAAs is about. If we win, it’s all together. So I think the success will be definitely different.”

The Sun Devils’ current success can largely be attributed to the years of talented swimmers who have combined their efforts to get the team where it is now. No one recognizes this evolution better than Bowman. He has been with the team during its highs and lows, but throughout all his years as head coach, his vision of a national championship has never altered.

“There have been a lot of people who were part of the evolution of this program who chose to believe in what we were doing, and joined us, grew a little part of the program, and then passed it on to someone else,” Bowman said. “I think that what satisfies me the most is that so many people are a part of it, and it’s something that, quite frankly, in 2015, when I got here, was the farthest thing from, but that you could imagine we would do. We just sort of stayed with it and just believed, and to be close to it now, it’s very satisfying and exciting.”