ASU swim and dive wrapped up a dominant 2025-26 season at the NCAA Swim and Dive Championships in Atlanta on March 28. The men's team finished fourth overall, continuing its historic run with its third top-five finish in the past five years. The women's team ended its season in a tie with Virginia Tech and Penn State for 37th place.
The story of the season has been the ever-improving times of junior Ilya Kharun. Kharun's season of dominance culminated in winning Men's Swimmer of the Meet at the Big 12 Championships. He set meet records in the 50 free, 100 fly and 200 fly. The swimmer carried this same energy to the NCAA championships, where he earned a second national title in the 200 fly at 1:37.66.
Significant victories were also won in team events. After the team's home opener against UNLV in October, senior Jonny Kulow shared that "as a team, we're in a phenomenal spot."
Kulow's words rang true at the NCAAs, where he anchored the men's 200 free relay, 200 medley relay and 400 free relay, bringing three dominant squads to national titles alongside graduate Remi Fabiani, graduate Adam Chaney, senior Andy Dobrzanski and Kharun. Chaney, Dobrzanski, Kharun and Fabiani also brought home the national title in the 400 medley relay.
Kulow's impact on the team cannot only be attributed to the numbers he has put up for the Sun Devils. In his past four years with the program, the senior stepped into a leadership role that allowed him to be an example for his fellow athletes.
"The biggest leader has been Jonny Kulow," head coach Herbie Behm said. "It's four years in a row now of him being here, and watching his growth from somebody coming in to then being the guy doing it in the water and leading outside of the water has been absolutely incredible."
On the women's side, senior Ginger McMahon similarly acted as a guiding light, embodying her role as a team captain. In her final season as a Sun Devil, McMahon helped the women's team swim the second-fastest time in school history in the 200 medley relay at the NCAA Championships, placing 14th overall in the event.
"I just want to hone in on making these girls the best that they can be in and out of the water," McMahon said. "If I've done that, I've done a good job."
For swimmers like McMahon, Kulow and other graduates and seniors on the team, the NCAA Championships marked the end of a long, hard-fought tenure with ASU. Earlier in the season, Dobrzanski shared that, since his freshman year, the team has been "closely knit" and watching their hard work come to an end is "a little bittersweet."
However, after five national titles won and many alumni in attendance to support the program, the competition gave Behm a moment to reflect on how far ASU men's swimming has come.
"It was very poetic because most of the (alumni) who were there were the people on this team when I started coaching," Behm said. "To really see that excitement and have them know that they were a part of building this was a really cool thing."
With a long season coming to its final end, Behm and the other coaching staff have already begun the recruiting process, looking to fill the gaps left behind by seniors leaving the program.
Behm already sees much promise in freshmen like Mattia Mauri, who filled in a spot in the men's 800 free relay at NCAAs after his teammates caught a stomach bug. Women's swimmer Albane Cachot is another name to keep an eye on for next season after becoming the Big 12 champion in the 50 free, 100 free and 200 free, and competing in the national championships in her first season as a Sun Devil.
While the future of ASU swim and dive can never be completely certain, it is clear that the leadership and guidance of graduating seniors will leave a lasting impression on the program and make way for a new era of swimmers who know how to lead in and out of the pool.
"We need people to be leaders, and there's lot of people who I think can be and will do that now that there's the space to do it," Behm said.
Edited by Niall Rosenberg, Senna James and Ellis Preston.
Reach the reporter at bcsmit41@asu.edu.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on X.
Brooklyn Smith is a sports reporter for The State Press and an English Literature and Economics student at ASU. She is in her 2nd semester with The State Press.
