New ASU swim and dive coach Herbie Behm brings a fresh analytical approach as he leads the program into its first season in the Big 12. (Photo courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)
TEMPE – Things have significantly changed on the pool deck of the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center for the Arizona State swim and dive program. Legendary coach Bob Bowman went to Texas. Leon Marchand and his five Olympic golds went professional.
Luckily for the program, new coach Herbie Behm and a cast of remaining talented swimmers have ASU poised for a successful first season in the Big 12 in the wake of those changes.
“Now that we’ve had a lot of success, it’s different goals and different things we’re trying to reach, but still kind of who we are is very much the same,” Behm said.
Behm inherited a pair of veteran swimmers and leaders for both the men’s and women’s teams with senior Patrick Sammon and senior Charli Brown, respectively, which has helped the cultural transition. The 2024-25 season for both the men’s and women’s squads gets underway on Oct. 4, with UNLV coming to the Valley for a night meet at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center.
“Now that we’ve got the opportunity … we really just want to follow in the footsteps that the leaders that we had created, and it was such a sense of family,” Brown said. “We just want to recreate that for all the women coming forward.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Sammon has won three Pac-12 championship events in his time at ASU, while Brown earned second-team All-American honors last season.
From a philosophical standpoint, Behm has changed some aspects of the program without altering the chemistry established by Bowman before him.
“(Behm) is more analytically based and more science-based,” Sammon said. “He’s always looking at the data (to see) what is the best way to improve our team as a whole.”
Despite being a rookie head coach, Behm already has made a name for himself beyond just the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center and Tempe.
ASU women’s swim and dive senior Charli Brown aims to build on last season’s All-American honors as the Sun Devils face new challenges in the Big 12. (Photo courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)
“Being Australian, all the coaches (in Australia) are so invested in what’s going on over here and coaches in the NCAA as well,” said Brown, who is from Sydney. “It just makes me so excited and proud to be a part of this team as well.”
The global attention comes as a result of ASU’s commitment to filling its pools with athletes from all over the world. Across the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams at ASU, there will be a total of 17 international athletes including the Australian Brown.
No one knows the program and waters of Tempe better than Behm. He graduated from Arizona State in 2013 after a successful swimming career that included a Pac-12 honorable mention in one of his seasons.
“He definitely bleeds maroon and gold,” Sammon said. “That definitely helps with our sense of culture on the team and is boosting us to the next level.”
For the men’s team, it’s hard to imagine finding the “next level” that Sammon mentioned coming off a national championship victory and sending five current or past Sun Devil swimmers to the Paris Olympic Games this summer. Nothing like winning on a national or global level can improve morale around a program in transition better than that.
“That was definitely a big confidence boost for the team,” Sammon said.
Sophomore men’s swimmer Ilya Kharun won two bronze medals at the Olympics while representing Canada. He is joined by fellow returning Olympian senior Tiago Behar, who represented Switzerland, and David Young, a freshman who represented Fiji at the Games before arriving in Tempe.
“It is so inspiring just having Olympians on our team and being surrounded by them daily … it’s just so incredible and just sets such a standard for everyone to do their best in each session,” Brown said.
Patrick Sammon of ASU men’s swim and dive embraces his leadership role under new coach Herbie Behm. (Photo courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)
Kharun’s return was a huge boost, especially in the wake of Marchand’s departure from collegiate swimming. In his first season, the Canadian collected six Pac-12 championships and set a school record for the 100-meter butterfly in just his second collegiate meet ever.
The move to the Big 12 presents an enormous opportunity for growth for the women’s team. The Pac-12 was one of the strongest conferences for swimming yearly, while the Big 12’s realignment has seen two of its strongest programs, Texas and Oklahoma, depart for the SEC.
“I think it can actually be a lot better for just the layout of the meet,” Behm said. “It’s a combined meet so men and women will be competing at the same time so the energy of the meet will be a lot better than it was at Pac-12s.”
Behm is ready to embrace his opportunity as a learning experience with his team and delve into uncharted waters.
“It’s like each week pieces of the puzzle start to be more clear,” he said.