Despite DQ, Arizona State Shows 200 Free Relay Contender Credentials
The time won’t go down anywhere but collective memory thanks to a disqualification. But for about five or so minutes Friday night, Arizona State had swum the second fastest 200 freestyle relay in NCAA history.
Come NCAAs next month, that may make Friday’s adversity seem a distant memory.
With two sub-18 legs, as is becoming the requirement to compete, Arizona State went 1:13.18. Add in the few hundredths of reaction time that cost that performance official status in the DQ, and you have a 200 free faster than the 1:13.35 that had been the NCAA record set by Florida in 2023.
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Might you have a relay that can challenge the new record holder, Tennessee, at NCAAs?
Friday, Tommy Palmer went 18.96 off the front. Ilya Kharun, who the broadcast believed to be the early departure, was 17.95, followed by Patrick Sammon in 18.41 and Jonny Kulow in 17.86. That adds up to a threat to Tennessee’s 1:12.80 last week at SEC Championships, the NCAA and U.S. Open record. Florida was second in 1:13.29, which lands it squarely in the title contest.
Just for some context: The surviving Big 12 record is 1:14.41 from Texas in 2022. The meet record is 1:15.76 from 2021, also Texas. The Longhorns won the Big 12 Championship in 2024 in 1:17.02. Even with some substantial caveats – Texas not bringing the deepest team to Big 12s, those present not being rested and it being arguably the weakest of the program’s relays – four seconds is a ludicrous year-on-year cut. It took 1:14.29 to win the ACC title (NC State) and 1:14.83 to win the Big Ten title (Michigan) this year, both meet records.
In its postseason relay assault, Arizona State was always facing a rebuild from last year’s team national title. Minus Hubert Kos, Leon Marchand and others, 11 of the 20 relay legs from NCAA Finals last year are gone. Kharun’s strength in fly always pointed toward the medleys, and Kulow’s sprint strength pointed toward the 200-yarders. The 800 free relay, which lost three guys from last year (Marchand, Kos and fifth-year Julian Hill) is the obvious one to cede to others.
Arizona State lost half of its 200 free relay from last year, a team that finished third at NCAAs in 1:13.95, in fifth-years Jack Dolan and Cam Peel. But Kulow was always the top sprinter, splitting 18.11 on that relay and 17.94 off the end of the second-place 200 medley relay. Kharun wasn’t much of a sprinter as a freshman, but the Canadian’s work with head coach Herbie Behm has turned him into an 18.51 flat-start 50, quicker than either Dolan or Kulow in program history.
At Big 12s this year, in the defining statement of Arizona State’s conference domination, the Sun Devils put seven guys in the A final of the 50 free. Kulow went 18.64, Kharun 18.82, Palmer 18.96 and Sammon 19.21. There’s your relay.
The question is if Tennessee might leave the door open for them at NCAAs. Or if the fire of Friday’s DQ might drive Arizona State – within the bounds of legal pickups this time– even faster.
Re. DQ of ASU men’s 200 free relay. Whether or not Kharun left early I strongly suspect a touchpad malfunction in this relay. The same touchpad that had Kharun leaving early had Patrick Sammon with a reaction time of .92 seconds. This reaction time would be more than twice the reaction time of the next slowest reaction time during the race by any other team. Video review of the race does not support this slow reaction time. So the same touch pad in the same race measured accurately measured both the fastest DQ reaction time and the slowest reaction time in the same race???