Sun Devil Open: Ilya Kharun Twice Scares 50 Fly National Record
Ilya Kharun had his 50-meter butterfly dialed in on Sunday at the Sun Devil Open, twice buzzing close to taking down his national record in the event.
The Canadian two-time Olympic medalist clocked in at 23.21 seconds in prelims, them 23.18 in the evening final to win comfortably. That comes close to his national mark of 23.09, which he set earlier this month at the TYR Pro Swim Series.
Grant House was second in 23.73, and Michael Andrew finished third in 23.79.
Kharun also finished the night at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center by winning the 200 fly in 1:57.19, his winning margin more than five seconds over the field.
The final session started with Taylor Ruck winning the women’s 50 fly in 26.70, prevailing in a duel with Marie Wattel (26.88). Ruck also bested the Frenchwoman in the 100 free by going 55.99 (she was 55.93 in prelims) to top Wattel’s 56.19 again. In third place was Julia Wozniak with a time of 56.86.
Those two events didn’t include Torri Huske, who took a swing at the 200 breaststroke instead. She went 2:29.04 in the final there, a time that finished second behind Lucy Bell’s result of 2:27.72.
JT Ewing went 2:01.69 to dominate the men’s 200 backstroke. Andy Dobrzanski was nearly 10 seconds ahead of the field in the 200 breast with a time of 2:13.57. Sonia Vaishnani won the women’s 200 fly in 2:17.74. Kayla Wilson paced prelims in the women’s 200 back in 2:14.32, but Gerda Szilagyi’s 2:15.54 was the quickest of finals.
Jonny Kulow won a thrilling final of the men’s 100 free with a time of 48.39 seconds, a hundredth of a second off his best time from the Pan Am Games in 2023. Patrick Sammon finished second in 48.44, followed by Mikel Schreuders (49.02), Rafael Miroslaw (49.38) and House (49.42).