On Friday afternoon, the Arizona State Sun Devils hosted the Georgia Bulldogs for the first meet of the 2023 season, splitting the meet between Friday and Saturday.
The Arizona State men’s team dominated on day one against the Bulldogs, 89.5-49.5, while the Arizona State women’s team fell to the Bulldogs, 48-87.
To begin the day, the women started off competing in the 400-meter Medley relay, where UGA won, leaving ASU with the second and third-place spots.
On the men’s side of the relay, they dominated with a relay team comprised of sophomore Hubert Kos, junior Léon Marchand, freshman Ilya Kharum, and junior Patrick Sammon, stunning the crowd with a first-place time of 3.34.37.
Other notable races from Marchand included the 200 IM where he finished miles ahead of opponents with a time of 1.57.76 for the win, while fellow teammate sophomore Cale Matter came in third with a time of 2.06.65.
Marchand recalled losing to UGA in a dual meet last year.
“Last season, we lost our first dual meet against Georgia,” said Marchand. “We want to win every dual meet we have this season and perform well in the NCAA’s”.
Marchand wasn’t the only star of the show.
Charli Brown and Lindsay Looney performed well despite the women’s team loss. The sophomore Brown took first place in the 150 backstroke, finishing with a time of 1:39.30 while fellow teammate junior Hana Edwards finished just seconds behind with a third-place finish of 1.41.19.
In addition to Brown’s dominance in the 150m backstroke, the senior Looney recorded a first-place time of 1.36.49 in the 150 fly.
Although Looney placed well today, she is still ambitious in setting goals today for the rest of the meet tomorrow.
“I’m excited to see what everyone can do tomorrow. As a team, compared to last year, we are leaps and bounds ahead of where we were, and I’m super excited to see what we can do coming from a fun long-coarse meet to something a little more serious tomorrow,” she said. “We can put our heads down and see what we’re capable of.”
Other notable wins by the Sun Devils today included sophomore Jonny Kulow winning his first event of his sophomore year in the 50 free with a 22.27 finish.
In a team effort, the Sun Devils took first and second place in the 150 fly, with Khan making his debut with a time of 1.24.52 and graduate student Alex Colsen recording a time of 1.27.69.
The final race of the afternoon was the 400 Freestyle Relay. Junior Erin Milligan, senior Molly Batchelor, Looney, and sophomore Ieva Maluka gained a second-place finish with a time of 1.57.83, just seconds away from the first-place spot.
The men saw a Sun Devil win for their last race of the day comprised of a team put together by freshman Filip Senc Samardzic, junior Patrick Sammon, sophomore Owen McDonald, and junior Tiago Behar with a total time of 3.19.31.
Coach Bob Bowman was proud of his team’s performance but wanted to see more going forward.
“Our main goal tomorrow morning is to come in and be firing from the first race because it’s a tight turnaround,” he said. “It is a great chance to rehearse what happens in the major meets when you have the final session late at night, and you have to come in the next morning and perform to qualify for the next day,” Bowman said.
The Sun Devils will be looking to win in both the men’s and women’s events on Saturday, rather than just one of the two.
“So we’re going to use this opportunity to practice that. That’s our main goal tomorrow morning is to be as sharp tomorrow morning as we were this afternoon.”
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