{"id":623434,"date":"2025-10-03T23:08:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T06:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=623434"},"modified":"2025-10-03T23:08:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T06:08:58","slug":"ilya-kharun-lights-up-scoreboard-as-arizona-state-opens-season-against-unlv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ilya-kharun-lights-up-scoreboard-as-arizona-state-opens-season-against-unlv\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilya Kharun Lights Up Scoreboard as Arizona State Opens Season Against UNLV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilya Kharun Lights Up Scoreboard as Arizona State Opens Season Against UNLV<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first stunning times of the 2025-26 college swim season came Friday evening in Tempe, Ariz., as the Arizona State Sun Devils welcomed the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in front of a huge crowd at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. Inside, junior butterflyer\u00a0Ilya Kharun<\/strong> put on a show.<\/p>\n

The two-time Olympic bronze medalist, who was the NCAA champion in the 200-yard fly as a freshman, was dynamite in all four of his swims while leaing his team to a 236-60 victory, with the women coming out on top 242-57.<\/p>\n

The ASU team of\u00a0Adam Chaney<\/strong>,\u00a0Jonathan Itzhaki<\/strong>, Kharun and\u00a0Tolu Young<\/strong> blasted a time of 1:21.88 for the win in the 200 medley relay. The Sun Devils were only a second behind their fourth-place time of 1:20.87 from last year’s NCAA Championships, and combining the splits of Chaney,\u00a0Andy Dobrzanski<\/strong>, Kharun and\u00a0Remi Fabiani<\/strong> would have yielded a time of 1:21.04, a stunning effort for so early in the college season.<\/p>\n

Kharun started off his day with an 18.91 butterfly split, which unofficially stands as the fifth-fastest mark in history. Only Kharun himself (on three occasions) and former Tennessee star Jordan Crooks<\/strong> have ever gone quicker. That relay performance set up an enormous effort in the 200 fly, where Kharun recorded the eighth-fastest time in history in a dominant effort. He came in at 1:37.94, only a hundredth off his own ASU school record. The only others to swim faster are\u00a0Luca Urlando<\/strong> (on three occasions),\u00a0Jack Conger<\/strong> and\u00a0Nick Albiero<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Kharun then won the 100 fly in 43.91, less than a half-second shy of the 43.43 he swam for second place behind fellow Canadian standout Josh Liendo <\/strong>at last season’s NCAA Championships. To wrap up the evening, Kharun split 41.17 coming home on ASU’s 400 free relay, combining with Fabiani, Quin Seider<\/strong> and Chaney to swim a time of 2:47.01.<\/p>\n

The Sun Devil standout is coming off a somewhat disappointing long course season by his own high standards, having missed the World Championships podium in the 200-meter fly and missed the global final entirely over 50 meters, but he issued an early-season reminder of his abilities with his incredible results Friday.<\/p>\n