Arizona State vs USC
- Saturday, November 4, 2023
- Tempe, Arizona
- SCY (25 yards)
- ASU Preview
A marquee matchup is brewing this weekend in Tempe, as some of the best male 200 butterfly swimmers in the world are slated to go head-to-head when Arizona State hosts USC on Saturday.
The event will feature three of the top four swimmers in the men’s 200 fly from the 2023 World Championships: gold medalist Leon Marchand, silver medalist Krzysztof Chmielewski and 4th-place finisher Ilya Kharun.
Both freshmen this season, ASU’s Kharun and USC’s Chmielewski have made an immediate impact early in their NCAA careers, ranking 2nd and 3rd in the nation (behind Marchand) with respective times of 1:40.68 and 1:41.60.
Marchand, who, despite winning the world title in July, has not focused on the 200 fly in college competition (instead opting for the 200 breast at NCAAs), roared to a time of 1:39.65 against UNLV in early October, ranking him #1 in the country by a wide margin as he neared his lifetime best of 1:39.57 from November 2022.
At the 2023 World Championships, Marchand (1:52.43), Chmielewski (1:53.62) and Kharun (1:53.82) all set LCM personal best times in the final to occupy three of the top four spots, with Marchand and Kharun setting new French and Canadian Records, respectively. Chmielewski was four-tenths shy of the super-suited Polish Record, but moved up to #6 all-time among Europeans.
In addition to this trio, this weekend’s dual meet will also feature Chmielewski’s twin brother, fellow USC freshman Michal Chmielewski, and ASU fifth-year Alex Colson, giving the competition the five fastest swimmers in the NCAA this season.
Note that Tennessee’s Martin Espernberger‘s time of 1:42.90 is converted from long course meters.
At the SMU Classic, where Krzysztof went 1:41.60, Michal logged a time of 1:43.43, while Colson went 1:43.93 during the Sun Devil’s dual with NC State.
2023-24 NCAA Rankings, Men’s 200 Fly
- Leon Marchand (ASU), 1:39.65 – ASU vs UNLV (Oct. 6)
- Ilya Kharun (ASU), 1:40.68 – ASU vs Georgia (Sept. 23)
- Krzysztof Chmielewski (USC), 1:41.60 – SMU Classic (Oct. 7)
- Michal Chmielewski (USC), 1:43.43 – SMU Classic (Oct. 7)
- Alex Colson (ASU), 1:43.93 – ASU vs NC State (Oct. 20)
Someone would HAVE to fact check me on this, because it’s a lot of data, but last I found was Morales (Stan) vs. Biondi (Cal) after the 1986 World Champs where they went 1-2 in the 100 fly. Can’t find either team’s schedule, or results from that meet, but assume it happened? https://t.co/ZdnL0x7KAr
— Braden Keith (@Braden_Keith) November 1, 2023
Although it’s far from a certainty we’ll see all five of these swimmers go head-to-head in this event on Saturday (we’ve reached out to ASU to see if entries are available), seeing a subset of them racing will make for the biggest showdown of the early NCAA season.
It’s actually rarer than I expected for the LCM Worlds gold and silver medallist to be in NCAA at the same time. I suspect Braden is right on the last time they saw each other in a duel meet. Here are more recent instances where they were in the NCAA, but did not have dual meets:
- Kate Douglass / Alex Walsh 2023 (200 IM – wasn’t until Kate graduated, and amazingly, I don’t think they ever raced it at a dual meet!)
- Leon Marchand / Carson Foster 2022 (both IMs – never in a dual meet though)
- Margaret Hoelzer / Kirsty Coventry 2005 (200 back – but they both just graduated from Auburn in ’05).
- Aaron Peirsol / Markus
… Read more »As a local who goes to these meets, it is great to see lots of people watching in person. Great for the sport and, as noted in this article, great to see some of the best swimmers in the world.
Why does it seem like every Arizona State dual meet is a home meet?
This weekend’s two meets are actually ASU’s last home meets of the season
Close. This weekend’s meets are the last home competitions this fall. They currently still have a home dual meet with Grand Canyon on January 6, 2024. Away meets remain this season with Utah, California, Stanford and Arizona.
Is this meet going to be streamed anywhere?
Will be available on the Pac-12 website here per ASU’s schedule.
ASU posts videos of each event immediately after the event ends on You Tube at “poolside perspective”