Leon Marchand Rocks Three Wins as Arizona State Sweeps UNLV

Leon Marchand -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Leon Marchand Rocks Three Wins as Arizona State Sweeps UNLV

This Frenchman is on his way to superstardom at a home Olympic Games next summer in Paris, and anytime Leon Marchand enters the pool, brilliance and dominance is a reasonable expectation. A second consecutive dominant World Championships saw Marchand break Michael Phelps’ world record in the 400 IM, break the European record in the 200 IM and pull away for a world title in the 200 butterfly.

But dominant as he may be in the 50-meter pool, he’s even better in short course, which accentuates his strength underwater. Entering his junior season at Arizona State University, Marchand would surely be favored in at least half the individual events on the NCAA program, provided he had the opportunity to race more than three individual events. So fans of the sport have to settle for watching Marchand lay waste to the all-time rankings across various events during the dual-meet season.

In ASU’s Friday dual meet against UNLV, with the Sun Devils and Rebels each donning tech suits, Marchand won three times on his own and recorded a swift breaststroke split on the Sun Devils’ 400 medley relay. The junior led his team to a 229-71 win while Arizona State’s women earned a 230-70 triumph.

Following 200-meter back world champion Hubert Kos into the pool, Marchand split 50.47, a mark that only three men (Marchand plus Florida’s Dillon Hillis and Indiana’s Josh Matheny) surpassed at last year’s NCAA Championships. Next up, freshman Ilya Kharun recorded a 44.47 split on butterfly, quicker than the 44.55 that then-fifth-year swimmer Max McCustwer swam on ASU’s third-place relay at last year’s NCAAs. When Filip SencSamardzic finished, the final time for Arizona State was 3:04.67.

After that, Marchand went to work individually. He won the 200 fly in 1:39.65, which was only eight hundredths off his best time of 1:39.57 that he swam at the Sun Devils’ midseason invitational last year and a time that ranks him 19th all-time in the race. Marchand won that race by more than five seconds, and the margin was almost as large when he made a rare appearance in the 200 back, his time of 1:39.64 earning first place by 4.95 seconds.

Finally, Marchand won the 400 IM in 3:37.96, obliterating Kos’ second-place time of 3:45.38. Only four swimmers beat that time at last season’s NCAAs, with Marchand setting his insane NCAA record of 3:28.82 while Hugo Gonzalez, Carson Foster and Kos beat that time. Four other swimmers earned valuable A-final points for their teams while recording a time slower than the world’s best male swimmer hit in a dual meet held the first weekend of October.

While Marchand was the standout swimmer, the ASU men also got a pair of individual wins from Jack Dolan, who topped the 100 back in 46.30 and the 100 freestyle in 42.75, edging out Patrick Sammon (42.85) in the latter event. Kharun won the 500 free in 4:21.47 while Kos went 46.07 to take first place in the 100 fly.

Daniel Matheson earned the win in the 1000 free in 9:08.19, with Owen McDonald following up with a 200 free showing of 1:33.83. Jonny Kulow took the 50 free (19.34). In diving, ASU’s Thomas Wesche was first on 3-meter with a score of 315.68 while Zachary Lundgren won the men’s 1-meter (305.78). Dolan, Kulow, Cam Peel and Kharun dominated the 200 free relay with a time of 1:16.10. The UNLV men got wins from Danny Beji in the 100 breaststroke (52.98) and 200 breast (1:56.05).

For the Arizona State women, Charli Brown was the standout, winning the 100 back (54.20), 200 back (1:58.34) and 400 IM (4:13.56). Teammate Erin Milligan was the top sprinter of the day as she won the 50 free (22.82) and 100 free (49.38), and Deniz Ertan was unbeatable in the distance races, taking the 1000 free (9:38.18) and 500 free (4:43.53).

Ieva Maluka was also a double winner, in the 200 free (1:45.97) and 100 fly (53.72), and Zoe Summar swept the breaststroke races (1:00.77 in the 100 breast, 2:11.77 in the 200 breast). Lindsay Looney, just over two months removed from an appearance in the 200-meter fly final at the World Championships, won the short course yards version of her best event in 1:55.97.

Brown, Summar, Looney and Milligan won the 400 medley relay in 3:37.18 while the meet-concluding 200 free relay went to the Sun Devils‘ team of Indigo Armon, Milligan, Molly Batchelor and Maluka in 1:30.87.

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