Different pool, same result: ASU trades yards for meters and beats SMU

(Photo: Kaylee Wilkerson/WCSN)

TEMPE – In collegiate sports, the roster turnover makes it challenging for teams to be perennial powerhouses. The Arizona State swim and dive team hasn’t had this problem for the last four years. Head coach Herbie Behm has acquired talent from around the world to build a team that won the Pac-12 championship the last two years in the conference and won back-to-back championships when they joined the Big 12.

Part of that success is having swimmers swim in races they would normally not participate in. Andy Dobrzanski became a pivotal part of the team’s success when he showed the team he could do more than just the breaststroke. Dobrzanski also dominated in freestyle races and the individual medley.

In his first year with the team, Oliver Munn has shown Behm flashes of what he saw in Dobrzanski. In his first meet with the Sun Devils, Munn swam the 100-yard breaststroke at 51.86 seconds, the second fastest time in the country. The Swedish sprinter has continued to show Behm that he can be relied on when he took the men’s 100-meter breaststroke in 57.54 seconds on Oct. 22 in a short-course meters dual meet against SMU at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center.

Munn and the No. 6 men’s team (2-0) defeated SMU for a second time 210-90, and the No. 18 women’s team (3-0) defeated the Mustangs, 221-79.

“Oliver just stepped right into the role that Andy Dobrzanski played last year, and I think he has a lot of growth,” Behm said.

NCAA swim meets are normally swum in yards, but for Behm to continue producing Olympians, the two teams agreed to a meet that served as a qualifier for the World Championships Trials. The short-course meters meet was held in international meters and featured only the sprinting events that will be held at the FMC Natatorium.

ASU and SMU agreed to the unique dual meet prior to the season based on the many international swimmers who weren’t able to compete in a preliminary for their national team because it wasn’t offered.

The victory was even better as 11 Sun Devils qualified for the SCM trials, with three qualifiers being newcomers on the team.

“I am super excited,” third-year Quin Seider said. “I’ve always wanted to compete at these trials. I like the Westmont pool. I’ve never competed in short-course meters before until this year, but I’m really excited.”

When fourth-year Nick Simons earned nine points for winning the men’s 200-meter backstroke at 1:52.18, the Tennessee transfer pumped his fists to his teammates, screaming in joy.

“He’s probably the most passionate, enthusiastic person,” Behm said. “… When he does great, he gets everybody else around him excited.”

Fourth-year Ilya Kharun showcased his dominance as an underwater swimmer when he took the 100 and 200-meter butterfly. Beneath the surface, Kharun is able to glide further than his opponents at the start of the race and at each turn, distancing himself from everyone before he swims his signature stroke that won him two bronze medals in the Olympics.

“That’s what he’s good at,” Behm said. “We’ve been working that hard, we’ve been doing a lot of it, so his legs have been pretty tired.”

The women’s team had to compete against itself for the majority of the meet. Six of the 12 women’s individual races were swept by the Sun Devils. Third-year Jordan Greber won the women’s 100 and 200-meter backstroke at 58.37 and 2:09.38. Greber was also a member of the winning team in the meet’s opening race, the 200-meter medley relay, which was also a sweep for the Sun Devils.

An oddity for the swim and dive team was that the meet didn’t have any times that set school records. Behm laughed when he said, “Technically, every race was a pool record,” but the team still turned in many personal bests. Second-year Alexia Sotomayor’s 59.98 third-place time in the 100-meter backstroke was a national record for her home country, Peru.

“You have to reframe what winning is,” Behm said. “Because even for these guys, going in time, necessarily beating the person next to you, doesn’t mean that that’s the best they can possibly be.”

Honorary captain Riley McCormick wasn’t the only ASU alumnus in attendance for the dual meet. Dobrzanski also returned to the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center as a professional swimmer to compete with other swimmers in heats for the World Championships. What would usually serve as a break for the swimmers before the relay races started was an opportunity for Dobrzanski, Johnny Kulow and Remi Fabiani to continue their pursuit of swimming glory after college.

Seider won the Big 12 championship in the men’s 800-yard freestyle last year, but he took the challenge of not having much experience in SCM by placing in both races he swam in. He had the lead in the first 50 meters of the 100-meter freestyle, but fourth-year Filip Senc–Samardzic beat his teammate to the wall by 0.09 seconds for the win.

“It was just a fight to the finish,” Seider said. “Ultimately, I think I should have just been out faster. So just a good learning experience going into trials next week.”

In preparation for the meet, the team held an intrasquad SCM scrimmage that helped get a better feel for the difference in yards and meters. This was the second time the team had a similar intrasquad meet, the first being a maroon and gold scrimmage between the newcomers and returners.

“It’s optimal to race it as if it were yards and just understand there will be one to two more strokes per lap,” Seider said.

Kharun was also asked to step into a different role for the meet. Decorated swimmers like Kharun with impressive times are usually the third or anchor legs in a relay race. Even though Behm said Kharun is “really good at relay starts, his weakness is diving.”

At the start of the men’s 200-meter freestyle relay, Kharun was up on the block for the team for the first leg of the race, marking another unique iteration of a race that the Sun Devils set a record in at the NCAA Championships. Kharun’s team won the relay at 1:24.66.

Behm said he will continue to mix and match the relay team with different swimmers and change their positions in the race until he finds the perfect match.

The meet was the last home meet of the year. The Sun Devils will be on the road for the next two months until they return to compete against Grand Canyon University on Jan. 9. The World Championships Trials SCM will be held Oct. 28-31 in Westmont, Illinois at the FMC Natatorium.