Men's S&D Loyola Quad-Meet Preview
10/27/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – Following a week that yielded a split in dual meets with Montclair State and defending MAAC champion Rider, the Seton Hall men’s swimming & diving team heads south to Maryland on Saturday to swim as part of a quad meet hosted by Loyola (MD).
“I was really proud of both teams, last week,” said head coach Ron Farina. “We had our alumni meet on Saturday which was a little bit of a tune up and then we got the opportunity to swim some different races against Montclair. We try to use those first two meets to get a lineup together as we move forward into meets like the one we have this weekend and I think we got a pretty good look at where we’re at right now.”
SHU and Loyola will be joined in the pool by squads from Drexel and Lafayette. In 2011-12, the Pirates picked up the second and third of their nine wins in the dual meet season on their trip to Baltimore, downing the Greyhounds (162-136) and trouncing the Lafayette by a 130-point margin (216-86).
During last season’s tri-meet, senior Ryan O'Shaughnessy (Coral Springs, Fla.) led The Hall with individual wins in the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley. Junior Matt Benson (Overland Park, Kan.) picked up a victory in the 100-backstroke while another Kansas product, senior Austin Acheson (Olathe, Kan.), aided the cause with a pair of second place efforts.
Acheson has been impressive thus far, posting two victories and four top-two finishes in four races this season. Acheson led the Pirates by automatically qualifying for seven different events at the conference meet as a junior, and has already met the standards set for both the100-yard backstroke and 200-yard butterfly.
O’Shaughnessy also goes into this weekend displaying good form early in the season after racking up a top-three finish in all five of his races last week, winning three of them. Along the way, the senior captain secured a spot in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events at the BIG EAST Championships later this winter.
“Austin’s versatility may have been the biggest problem going into Rider,” Farina said. “We kind of went back and forth the whole week and even up to the day of the meet on what he was going to swim. We put him in the 1,000-freestyle and then him and Greg Black went 1-2 for us in the 200-fly. I can put him in literally any event and he’ll score points for us, so it’s about finding the right spots.”
“The same thing with Ryan,” added Farina. “Whether it’s the fly, the breaststroke, freestyle or IM, that’s how we recruit, we recruit kids with versatility. It’s great, because it gives us that flexibility but then it’s about putting them in the right spots to maximize it.”
Freshman Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) will also compete among the best in the conference in the 100-yard backstroke after touching less than three-tenths of a second after Acheson in a 1-2 finish for SHU against Montclair State. Aside from that effort, Bosse spent most of his first week competing in freestyle races for The Hall. He finished the first two meets with one win, four top-three finishes, and an additional qualifying mark in the 200-yard freestyle.
“We brought Tim in as a backstroke/freestyle guy,” said Farina. “Right now, we’ve been focusing primarily on freestyle. He solidifies our 50 group, but I think his strength is in the 100 and 200. He’s somebody that when he rests, I think he’s going to go really fast and set himself up for a good seed at BIG EAST.”
Another highlight in the 1-1 week for SHU was the exploits of sophomore diver Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.). Mitchell entered the season as the school record holder from the one-meter board, but completed a two-part takeover of the record board when he followed up a historic day against MSU with another stellar effort in Lawrenceville. The Milford native was named SHUPirates.com Athlete of the Week after twice shattering his own one-meter record in the opener and setting a new three-meter mark just two days later.
With his scores, Mitchell will return to the BIG EAST Championship in both one and three-meter competition for the second straight year and even earned a spot at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships on the one-meter board. Last season in Baltimore, Mitchell placed first from both distances in just his second career meet.
“Ben worked his butt off this summer,” Farina said. “He got in great diving shape and he’s more focused this year. When I talk about confidence, he feels when he gets on the board; he can beat whoever it is. If he doesn’t beat them this time, he believes he’ll beat them next time whether it is at BIG EAST or somewhere else down the road.”
O’Shaughnessy, Acheson, Bosse and Mitchell lead a group six Pirates that have qualified to compete in two events each at the 2013 BIG EAST Championships. Breaststroke specialists Ian DeLisio (Woodstock, N.Y.) and James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.) round out the group after both making it in under the designated cuts in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke. DeLisio added a second place time in the 100-yard butterfly against MSU while Logan posted a trio of top-three finishes last week.
Benson will join Acheson and Bosse as a competitor in the 100-yard backstroke at the conference meet by virtue of his time at Rider. Fellow junior Greg Black (Easton, Pa.) booked a ticket to Indianapolis with his win in the 200-yard butterfly at RU while senior Brian Pauling (Sewell, N.J.) surpassed qualifying standards in the 200-yard freestyle on the night as well.
Heading into Saturday, both the men’s and women’s squads boast nine automatic qualifiers after only two meets.
“I’m very pleased with our qualifying numbers so far,” said Farina. “All I care about though, is that everybody’s there at the end. We have enough things in place such as the Patriot Invitational that will give a lot of kids that opportunity. Second semester we have the Bucknell Invitational, which coming off our Puerto Rico training, they should be in good position to get that cut time. Once they’ve made it, it’s about refocusing and working on positioning as we try to crack that top-16 or top-eight”
“The one thing that we don’t have that we have had in the past is, I can’t look at a race and know we are going to win it,” Farina continued. “Despite that, where in the past we might have had a wide gap between our number one guy and our number 20 guy, that gap is a lot smaller this year. We are a lot deeper as a team and while we may not have a superstar, we have a group that can get the job done.”
As for the opposition, the Loyola men are coming off losses in a home meet against Navy and George Mason on October 6. The Greyhounds are led by three-time MAAC Male Swimmer of the Year Brennan Morris who extended his personal streak to 12-straight wins in the 500-yard freestyle in the season opener.
The Drexel men’s squad dropped a close 140-152 decision in a rivalry meet against La Salle to start the season. The Dragons were led by strong efforts from a slew of underclassmen including Joel Barryman, Kyle Lukens and Chad Schmidt.
Lafayette has not yet competed this season.
“We had a good week of practice,” said Farina. “Having a good eight or nine days in between meets gave us a chance to get back to training, back to work and prepare for this weekend. It’s going to be exciting to watch the men develop as they battle week to week.”
We have an opportunity to swim three quality teams this weekend,” Farina added. “It’s going to be a long day, but the kids respond well. We’ll travel the entire team and a day-trip like that with a long meet is a good bond opportunity for them. Everybody will get an opportunity to make their BIG EAST cuts and I know both teams are looking forward to it. We should be ready.”
Action is scheduled to get underway tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
