(Tempe, AZ) After a season that delivered a lot excitement, Sun Devil Swim and Dive returns this week for their opening meets this weekend against Georgia, which will be the first of eight home meets this school year.
WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2023-24
The Sun Devils will open their season at home with two meets against Georgia on Friday at 2 p.m. followed by a 9 a.m. meet with the Bulldogs the following day.
Both squads will welcome UNLV on Friday, Oct. 6 at 2 p.m. and two weeks later ASU will host NC State for two home meets on Oct. 20 and 21.
The Sun Devils round out their homestand with two Pac-12 foes UCLA (women’s only) and USC in early November.
Arizona State will be on the road for the first time this season as the Sun Devils will travel to Greensboro, N.C. for the NC State GAC Invitational. On Nov. 20, both teams will go to Salt Lake City for a dual meet with Utah.
Senior Day for ASU will be Jan. 6 in a meet versus GCU. The Sun Devils will travel to the Bay Area in mid-January before going to Tucson for a dual with Arizona in February before the postseason. Additionally, the dive program will travel to Flagstaff for the NAU Invite in early February.
The full Men’s and Women’s 2023-24 schedule can be found here.
NEWCOMERS
The Sun Devils welcome 18 new swimmers to the squad this year with 10 on the women’s team and eight on the men’s team.
Three of the newcomers are transfers, including Deniz Ertan, a sophomore transfer from Georgia Tech.
In her first year at Georgia Tech, Ertan won ACC championships in both the 500m and 1650m free and was eighth in the 400m IM at her conference championships. Over the summer, Ertan represented her home country of Turkey as she qualified for the 2023 World Aquatic Championships in the 400 and 800m freestyle.
One of the incoming freshmen for the Sun Devils this year is Ilya Kharun. Kharun competed at the 2023 World Aquatic Championships in Fukuoka this summer representing Canada in swimming the 200m butterfly and 50m fly.
Filip Senc-Semardzic, a Toronto, Canada native, recently competed at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships 2023 where his team took the bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay. The incoming freshman also represented his home country at the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
Lia Csulak competed at the European Junior Swimming Championships 2023 representing Hungary where she finished in the top-10 of the 800 and 1500m freestyle back in July. Fellow freshman Alexa Reyna competed at the French Elite Championships in July where she finshed in the top-10 in three events. At European Juniors, she was runner-up in the 800 free and 1500 free in 2022.
DIVERS
The diving program welcomes back six returners (Ashlyn Kirsch, Amayah Wiley, Caleb Liban, Lane Stallworth, Thomas Wesche and Zachory Lundgren) in head coach Marc Briggs‘ third season with the Sun Devils. In his first season with the Sun Devils last season, Wesche scored 283.65 to place sixth overall, a career-best finish for him at Pac-12 Championships.
Newcomers include freshmen Vera Brewer and Kayden Hayes along with graduate transfer Jessie Nowotny. In 2021-22, Nowotny received All-Mountain West honors as she competed in the finals of the 1-meter springboard final at the MW championships.
RETURNERS
After 18 swimmers from both the men’s and women’s teams qualified for NCAA Championships, there will be a fair amount of returners for the upcoming action of this season.
Of the 15 Sun Devils who earned All-American honors at the NCAA Championships last season, 13 are back this year.
Sophomore Hubert Kós won his first world championship this summer in the 200m backstroke. Kós’ time of 1:54.14 in that race set a national record for his home country of Hungary. In his first collegiate season with the Sun Devils, Kós had three top-11 finishes at NCAA’s which included a school record-setting time in the 200 back with a time of 1:37.96.
Another underclassman returner is Jonny Kulow, who won Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. Kulow was additionally named a part of the U.S. National team roster for the first time last week along with junior Daniel Matheson who swam the 1650 free at the NCAA Championships.
Owen McDonald was a part of the highest scoring freshman class at NCAA’s as he took 5th in the 200 back and 6th in the 100 back. Grad student Julian Hill took second in the 800 free relay and sixth in the 200 free and fellow grad student Jack Dolan finished in the top-10 in six events at NCAA’s.
Senior Lindsay Looney, who won her first Pac-12 championships last season in the 500 free and 200 fly, competed in the 200m butterfly at Worlds over the summer and was recently named to the U.S. National Team roster for 2023-24.
Patrick Sammon is another Sun Devil who competed on the world stage this summer as he competed in Dublin, Ireland at the LEN U23 European Championships as he won gold in the 100m freestyle and as a part of the 4×100 mixed freestyle relay as well as taking silver in the 200m free.
Ieva Maluka set Latvian records in the 200m freestyle and the 200m IM at Worlds this summer. In her freshmen year, Maluka was third as a part of the 800 free relay and sixth in the 200m IM at Pac-12s.
A few other returners who competed at NCAA’s include Charli Brown, who competed in the 200 IM, 200 back and 400 IM, and Molly Batchelor, who swam the 100 free, 200 free and 500 free. Erin Milligan and Jade Foelske are additional upperclassmen returners who each finished in the top-20 in their events at Pac-12s in the Sun Devil women’s fifth place finish.
LÉON MARCHAND
Marchand took the world by a storm this summer after his dominant sophomore campaign as he became the world record holder in the 400 IM, which broke the record Michael Phelps had held since August 2002.
In addition to being a 2023 World Championships champion in the 400 IM, Marchand was also a world champion in the 200m IM and the 200m fly.
This was all after Marchand was named the Pac-12 Men’s Swimmer of the Year and the CSCAA Division I Men’s Swimmer of the Year for the second year in a row.
His five NCAA Championships he has from the past two seasons are the most in Sun Devil history and went undefeated in the 27 events he competed in last season.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Olivia Dowell
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