NCAA champion Zalan Sarkany announces transfer to Indiana for 2024-25 season (not North Carolina State)

The reigning NCAA champion in the men’s mile Zalan Sarkany has changed his mind and will instead head to Indiana next season after verbally committing to transfer to NC State earlier this year.

Sarkany swam his first two seasons of eligibility at Arizona State University, including as a member of the Sun Devils’ first-ever national championship team. A 2023 freshman, he joined the team this semester and finished 8th in the mile (14:42.80), 17th in the 400 IM (3:44.56), and 29th in the 500 free (4:16.61 ).

As a sophomore, he spent the semester training in Hungary, and upon returning to the United States, he broke out immediately. In a January dual meet against Grand Canyon, he set an Arizona State school record in the mile (14:28.09), which would have won the NCAA title a year earlier . He continued to rewrite the Arizona State distance record book throughout the season, eventually winning the NCAA title in the mile.

Despite clocking 14:30.57 at the NCAA Championships, which was slower than his best, he was still five and a half seconds ahead of the field in this race. His biggest competition to repeat next season could be University of Florida commit Luke Whitlockwho already had 14:50 in high school and joined a training group that included the NCAA runner-up Gio Linscheer (14:36.01) and 3rd place Andrew Taylor (14:37.80) next season.

Indiana, meanwhile, had only one participant in the 1650 freestyle at the NCAAs: senior Tristan Dewitt.

Although free distance hasn’t been the strength of the current iteration of the Indiana men’s teams, Michael Brinegar finished 6th at the 2022 NCAA Championships in 14:33.76, a time that would have been 2nd last year. This demonstrates that the Hoosiers can coaching distance swimmers – although NC State has become one of the most consistent distance groups in the NCAA.

After the NCAAs, Sarkany returned home to Hungary for the national championship in April, where he won the 800 freestyle (7:57.41) and finished 2nd in the 1500 freestyle (15:10.44). He had already qualified, pending the remainder of the qualifying period, with a time of 14:53.19 in December, so this was more of a practice meet for him.

This time she would have finished 7th at last year’s World Championships.

While his first two years of college were split between Tempe and Hungary, Sarkany says he plans to train year-round at Indiana starting next season.

“After the Olympics, I will finally get to experience college swimming in the fall,” he told SwimSwam, saying he plans to join the Hoosiers in late August.

As for what attracted him to Indiana, he said, “the plan to be able to train pretty well on the long course meters (the Olympic course) as well, not just the short course system.

“They also offered me a very good scholarship, which I couldn’t refuse. Their business school was also an important decision maker.

“But I think the main thing was their swimming plan for me going forward.”

Indiana’s Kelley School of Business is ranked 20th in the nation by U.S. News in its 2024 list.

Indiana was blessed with an offseason. Sarkany’s former teammate at Arizona State Owen McDonald, who is also entering his junior season, is also transferring to Indiana. He was the team’s 3rd highest individual scorer at the NCAA Championships with 46 points.

They will also welcome an intermediate breaststroke star Brian Benzing for his 5th year of eligibility (announced last June) after finishing 2nd at last year’s NCAA championship; And Matt King from Virginia, an All-American sprinter and member of the U.S. national team.

While they lose the NCAA champion Brendan Brule to graduation, key contributors Tomer Frankel (32 NCAA points), Jassen Yeah (17 individual points), and Gavin Wight (NCAA relay swimmers only) are all back to enjoy their 5th season of eligibility.

Indiana has already had to use creative scholarship allocations to lure McDonald, and finding more money for Sarkany gives Indiana the kind of depth to start serious conversations about its NCAA title potential.

With the breakup of national champions Arizona State and the rapid rebuilding of the Texas men under Bowman, there appears to be a four-team battle for next year’s title (Cal, Florida, Indiana and Texas). Indiana finished 4th in last year’s meet, finishing 147.5 points behind the champions and 68.5 points behind Cal.

With the best diving crew in the country returning mostly intact (Carson Tyler, Quentin Henninger, Max Weinrich and Maxwell Weinrich combined for 126 NCAA points) and high-impact freshmen like Cooper McDonald (1:34/4:17 freestyler) ready for next season, Indiana could close this gap quickly.