Devils take commanding lead on day two of NCAA Championships

(Photo via Casey McNulty/WCSN)

INDIANAPOLIS — Day two of the NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships saw exciting races in the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle relay for the Sun Devils.

The overwhelming favorite in the 500-yard freestyle was none other than junior Léon Marchand. Despite entering the final session as the second seed, Marchand proved why he is the NCAA record holder in the event. The junior got off to a blistering start, already a whole body length ahead of the rest of the field after the first 100 yards. He grew that lead throughout the entirety of the race, mainly due to his intense underwaters off of every wall.

Marchand clocked a time of 4 minutes and 2.31 seconds to shatter his own NCAA record by nearly four seconds and become ASU’s first national champion of the meet. Marchand now has a total of five NCAA records, and his decision to swim the 500 is yet another testament to his versatility.

“I was trying to challenge myself in different events, and I’ve been doing a lot of freestyle recently in practice and getting way better,” Marchand said. “I’ve been pulling more water, doing more underwater, and my flutter kick has been way better too. I was also preparing all of that so winning (the 500-yard freestyle) was pretty cool today.”

Sophomore Zalán Sarkany and junior Daniel Matheson represented ASU in the event’s consolation final and placed twelfth and fifteenth, respectively.

The 200-yard individual medley saw three Sun Devils in the championship heat. Sophomore Owen McDonald had an outside smoke swim from lane one and became the runner-up in the event with his time of 1:39.23.

Sophomore Hubert Kós and senior David Schlicht placed third and sixth for the Devils, respectively. Kós had the lead until the backstroke leg but faded slightly throughout the breaststroke and freestyle. The trio’s performance racked up some big points for the Devils, which was precisely what they needed to put themselves ahead of their competitors.

The Devils rounded out the individual races of the night with the fastest event of the entire meet: the 50-yard freestyle. ASU had yet another trio of Devils in the event, with fifth-year Jack Dolan and sophomore Jonny Kulow in the championship final and freshman Ilya Kharun in the heat prior. The 50-yard freestyle is one of the most challenging races to execute, but Dolan and Kulow fought hard and placed seventh and eighth, respectively, while Kharun placed twelfth overall.

The final event of the day was the 200-yard freestyle relay. ASU had tough competition in the event, especially competing against Florida and California. Swimming out of lane three instead of their usual lane four, Dolan, Kharun, fifth-year Cam Peel and Kulow put up a solid swim with their time of 1:13.95 to finish third.

Overall, day two was a comeback day for the Devils. After not performing as well as expected on Wednesday, they came back with a vengeance and ultimately took over the lead with 201 points, leaving second-place Cal trailing by 32 points.

As the championship meet continues, Marchand will continue to be a key part of the Sun Devils’ success. Despite having an up-and-down fall by his standards, Marchand seems to be back to his regular self and ready to lead the Sun Devils to their first men’s swim and dive title.

“The first semester was really hard because I got a lot of sickness and all that stuff, and I had to go back to training and start over everything in December, and everyone was doing crazy times at swimming meets, and I was just training on my own,” Marchand said. “I’m trying to have more fun, I’m trying to do different stuff, focus on different things in practice, and stay healthy. Yeah, I think I’m back.”