Hubert Kos Leads Arizona State in Impressive Win Over NC State; Katharine Berkoff Dominates for Wolfpack Women
In one of the first classic clashes of the college swimming season, Arizona State hosted North Carolina State for the first of two days of racing at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. Both teams donned tech suits, and top times in the country flew off the board, particularly on the men’s side, where Arizona State’s pair of world champions produced two individual wins each on the way to a 186.5-to-113.5 victory. The women’s meet, meanwhile, went to the Wolfpack by a 169.5-130.5 margin.
The Sun Devil men began the meet with a lights-out performance in the 200 medley relay. Jack Dolan (21.05), Leon Marchand (23.29), Ilya Kharun (19.55) and Cam Peel (18.78) swam a time of 1:22.67. The Wolfpack finished not far behind in 1:23.27 as Aiden Hayes (21.11), Sam Hoover (23.37), Kacper Stokowski (19.82) and Quintin McCarty (18.97) also got off to a quick start.
Individually, it was a big day for Arizona State sophomore Hubert Kos, who won a tight showdown with NC State freshman JT Ewing in the 200 backstroke, 1:40.11 to 1:40.21, with Stokowski taking third in 1:40.67. Kos, the world champion this summer in the 200-meter back, later took first in the 200 IM win in 1:42.97. Marchand swam a pair of off-events Friday. His first individual win of the day came in the 100 breaststroke at 52.14, and he followed up with a 4:14.34 in the 500 freestyle.
Kharun blasted a 1:40.76 to pace the 200 butterfly. Kharun, who tied for fourth in the 200-meter fly while representing Canada at this summer’s World Championships, is poised to be one of the biggest impact freshmen in the country this season. He later won the 100 fly in 45.26, beating Hayes (45.94) by almost seven tenths.
Arizona State got a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 free, with Julian Hill winning in 1:33.58. Dolan clocked 19.02 for the win in the 50 free, and he returned to win the 100 free in 42.20. David Schlicht went 1:52.46 to win the 200 breast, and to conclude the meet Dolan, Patrick Sammon, Kharun and Marchand swam a time of 2:47.53 to win the 400 free relay, with Dolan leading off in 41.86 and Kharun and Marchand also both posting sub-42 splits.
The Wolfpack swept the top four spots in the 1000 free, with fifth-year Ross Dant leading the way with his 8:51.33. But after that, Arizona State took over. Stokowski also posted a sizzling swim in the 100 back, as he clocked 44.48 in the event in which he won the NCAA title in 2022, but NC State would not win any further men’s swimming events. In diving, NC State’s Renato Calderaro won on 1-meter (343.05) and 3-meter (383.70).
A strong performance for the NC State won opened with Katharine Berkoff, Abby Arens, Miriam Sheehan and Casaundra Moses winning the 200 medley relay in 1:37.07. Then, in her first individual event of the day, Berkoff was unsurprisingly dominant in the 100 back, swimming a time of 50.83. Soon after, Berkoff won the 50 free in 22.34, and the fifth-year veteran was almost one second clear of the field in the 100 free, touching in 48.24.
Arens was the only swimmer under 1:00 in the 100 breast, clocking 59.26, and she won the 200 breast by more than three seconds in 2:08.94. Arens matched Berkoff with a third individual win as she went 51.91 to secure first in the 100 fly.
Grace Sheble won the 200 IM for the Wolfpack in 1:57.33, and Meghan Donald edged out ASU’s Charli Brown in the 200 back, 1:56.18 to 1:56.28. Diving wins went to Helene Synnott on 1-meter (299.85) and Bayleigh Cranford on 3-meter (326.63).
ASU’s Deniz Ertan captured first in the 1000 free (9:36.66), and teammate Ieva Maluka blasted a time of 1:45.31 to win the 200 free by almost two seconds. Lindsay Looney, a finalist in the 200-meter fly at this summer’s Worlds, won the yards version of the event in 1:55.27. Molly Batchelor took the 500 free in 4:42.58. The team of Erin Milligan, Batchelor, Looney and Maluka won the 400 free relay in 3:16.23.
Notably, Arizona State-trained professional Regan Smith put on a show in the 200 fly during a break from college racing, lowering the American and U.S. Open records in the event by more than one second.