Pac-12 Men’s Championships: Arizona State Sets NCAA Record in 200 Medley Relay (Video)
The final Pac-12 Championships are here, as the men will take the conference’s bows at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center starting Wednesday. It may well be a championship swansong, in the final conference championships before the league’s remnants are sent to the four corners of the college sports world next season, a second battle this season between potential NCAA championship contenders in Cal and Arizona State.
And boy did it start with a bang.
Arizona State set an NCAA record in the 200 medley relay right out of the gates, the foursome of Jack Dolan, Leon Marchand, Ilya Kharun and Jonny Kulow going 1:20.55 to take down the record set by NC State at NCAAs last year.
It’s quite the start for a four-day meet, which runs through Saturday.
200 Medley Relay
It’s an NCAA record right out of the gate. The splits in 2023:
- Kacper Stokowski 20.36 – Mason Hunter 22.95 – Nyls Korstanje 19.15 – David Curtiss 18.21
The splits Wednesday:
- Jack Dolan 20.30 – Leon Marchand 22.71 – Ilya Kharun 19.30 – Jonny Kulow 18.24
The scary part is that Marchand was faster last year, at 22.27 at NCAAs, as the Sun Devils went 1:21.07. So there’s more meat left on the bone maybe? That previous time had been the Pac-12 record, and the Sun Devils were more than one second faster than their meet record from last year.
NCAA RECORD 🤯@ASUSwimDive start the meet with a 1:20.55 200 medley relay! pic.twitter.com/vZGG0BxaYv
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) March 7, 2024
Three teams are headed to NCAAs. Arizona booked an A cut of 1:22.90, Tommy Palmer splitting 18.33 off the end. Stanford was third in 1:23.14, Rafael Gu’s 19.97 on fly a big one. Cal was fourth, though they fielded a largely B squad with an A cut already in hand.
800 free relay
