Seton Hall University
Rider
Mitchell Sets 3-Meter Record at RID
10/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. - The Seton Hall men's swimming & diving team was in action for the second time in three days as they traveled to Lawrenceville to take on defending MAAC champions Rider two days removed from a season-opening win over Montclair State.
The two schools have established a regular series, meeting for the seventh time in as many years on Thursday evening. The Pirates came in to the meet winners of five of the last six head-to-head matchups, but fell, 172-125, to move to 1-1 early in the 2012-13 season.
The Pirates delivered several standout individual performances on the night as six more team members met automatic qualifying standards for the 2013 BIG EAST Championship in at least one event. The team's total is now at nine through two meets as senior Austin Acheson (Olathe, Kan.), freshman Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) and sophomore diver Ben Mitchell (Milford Pa.) each automatically qualified in an additional event after initially clinching conference berths against MSU.
The assault on the record board continued for Mitchell, who now owns the highest score by any men's diver in school history from both the one and three-meter distances. Fresh off a performance where he twice broke his own record from the one-meter board in the opener, the sophomore delivered an encore by setting a new standard from three-meters. Mitchell dove to a six-dive score of 285.45, exceeding the 278.77 mark set by Zach Smith in 2005-06.
In the pool, SHU recorded three individual wins. Acheson took first in the 1,000 freestyle in 10:04.71, touching more than six seconds before Rider's top finisher in the process. Fellow senior Ian Keyser (Petersburg, N.J.) placed second in the event, his first individual swim of the new year.
Acheson later placed second in the 200-yard butterfly, a race that was won by teammate Greg Black (Easton, Pa.). Both Acheson and Black came in under the BIG EAST automatic qualifying line with times of 1:59.10 and 1:57.61 respectively.
Another senior, Ryan O'Shaughnessy (Coral Springs, Fla.), posted the Pirates' third victory of the night by coming in first in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:11.32). O'Shaughnessy was joined in earning a trip to Indianapolis by sophomore James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.) (third, 2:13.35) and junior Ian DeLisio (Woodstock, N.Y.) (fifth, 2:15.92) during the event.
O'Shaughnessy and Logan also qualified for the conference meet in the 100-yard breaststroke as Logan finished second (1:00.53), 17 hundredths of a second ahead of the senior co-captain in third.
Junior Matt Benson (Overland Park, Kan.) was the Pirates top performer in backstroke events, finishing third at both the 100 and 200-yard distances. He also added himself to SHU's list of automatic qualifiers with a time of 55.06 in the 100-yard.
Bosse earned third place points for the squad in the 200-yard freestyle (1:45.48) and was immediately followed by senior Brian Pauling (Sewell, N.J.) in fourth (1:46.66). They each sewed up a spot at BIG EAST in the event with their efforts.
Bosse went on to take second in the 100-yard freestyle, just ahead of junior Joey Lacus (Wethersfield, Conn.) in third.
In other sprint action, Lacus continued to pace the Pirates in the 50-yard freestyle. Lacus placed second overall and was the team's top finisher for the second meet in a row (22.06).
After two meets in quick succession, the team will have more than a week off before they travel to Baltimore, Md. for a quad meet hosted by Loyola (Md.) on Saturday, Oct. 27. Other schools scheduled to compete include Lafayette and Drexel. Start-time is slated for 1:00 p.m.
