Women's S&D Loyola Quad-Meet Preview
10/27/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – After kicking the season off with two dual meet wins in three days last week, an undefeated Seton Hall women’s swimming & diving squad heads to Baltimore, Md. looking to sweep the competition at Loyola (MD) for the second year in a row.
“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.”
“Thursday, I was really happy with how the ladies swam,” Farina continued. “They really stepped up and we won a lot of close races.”
Last season, the Pirates registered resounding victories over both the Greyhounds (169-131) and Lafayette (191-109) in tri-meet competition. Junior Kerrie Kolackovsky (Franklin Square, N.Y.) led the charge with a trio of wins, finishing first in the 500 and 1,000-yard freestyle events as well as the 100-yard breaststroke.
This year, Drexel will join the three returning teams in a quad meet.
Following the first two meets of the young season, Kolackovsky enters the weekend atop a group of nine Pirates who have already punched a ticket to the BIG EAST Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. Against Montclair State and at Rider, the Franklin Square native picked up top-two finishes in all five of her races, winning four, and meeting automatic qualifying standards in four separate events.
“I can put Kerrie in any event and I know what I am going to get from her,” said Farina. “She was great again for us in the 200-free and the 500-free at Rider, but we also got a lot of complementary performances. You look at Brenna [O’Keefe] in the 1,000-free and Leah Mayer in the 500-free, they came up big as well.”
“We talked about it before the meet,” Farina added. “There’s six lanes, five score. If everybody we put in the race scores a point, we’ll win the meet.”
Five of the team’s other qualifiers have also clinched a spot in multiple events when the conference meet rolls around in February. Junior Jane Ehret (Florida, N.Y.) took home three wins in four individual swims a week ago, surpassing conference standards in both butterfly events in the process. She produced one of the most pivotal moments of the Pirates’ hard-fought road win over the Broncs, out-touching reigning MAAC Female Swimmer of the Week Kelly O’Connor by one-hundredth of a second to claim first-place points in the 200-yard butterfly.
“That kind of got the ball rolling for the ladies when Jane touched the Rider girl out by a hundredth of a second,” Farina said. “You could tell the last three strokes she didn’t breathe and she just wanted it more. Taking those first place points, we went from almost being tied at the break to having about a 15 point lead.”
“That was how it went for the ladies all night,” continued Farina. “Whether it was for first or it was for third, they went after it.”
In just her second collegiate meet, freshman Megan Mallon (Glen Mills, Pa.) picked up a pair of top-two finishes, coming in under the conference cut in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke races.
“Megan stepped up for us by winning in the breaststroke and with her performance in the relay,” Farina said.
A dual school record-holder in the 100 and 200-yard backstrokes Andrea Shuba (Pittsburgh, Pa.) took care of qualifying early in her senior campaign. One of four captains for The Hall, the senior glided to conference championship worthy times in each of her signature events, while contributing top-three points in both to boost the effort against Rider.
Another freshman, Cora Meehan (Noblesville, Ind.), also qualified in two separate events as her times in both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events were good enough to book a trip back to the Hoosier State.
“With Cora and Andrea, it’s kind of the perfect situation,” said Farina. “You have someone like Shuba who is a school record holder and this is her senior year. When we recruited Cora, we told her that is a great situation for her. She can come in without having to be the number one girl and you’re going to have someone to train with. Those two train side by side. I think they are going to make each other better with their competitiveness and we could end up having two girls scoring at BIG EAST as a result.”
From the diving board, junior Katie Riley (Newburgh, N.Y.) turned in an impressive week, producing the highest score of the respective rounds with all four of her dive sets. After twice posting a qualifying score from the one-meter board against Montclair State, Riley dove to wins in one and three-meter competition at Rider. Her performances assured that she will dive at least twice at the BIG EAST Championships for the second consecutive year.
Riley was joined in qualifying for the one-meter dive by freshman Gabby Signorelli (Massapequa, N.Y.). After sending herself to the conference stage with her score vs. MSU, Signorelli capped her first week of collegiate competition by picking up vital second place points in the three-meter dive as a part of SHU’s victory in Lawrenceville.
“The divers are diving with a lot of confidence right now,” stated Farina. “When you see them in practice and the tempo of the practice, it is different than what we have had here in the past. A lot of that has to do with how [diving coach] P.J. [Hughes] is running his practice. Where they were getting in 100 dives before, they’re doing 150-200 dives now. That’s only going to make them better and give them confidence as we progress through the season.”
Newcomer Gabi Levine (Garwood, N.J.) also played a major role in her first week swimming for the Pirates, recording a trio of top-three finishes and beating automatic qualifying standards in the 100-yard butterfly against Montclair State and RU. Junior Kelly Markwell (Old Bridge, N.J.) also enters Saturday’s quad meet with a 100-yard butterfly qualifying time already under her belt to round out the Seton Hall women’s contingent of conference qualifiers to this point.
“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.”
Alie Zelenky (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) sprinted her way to two wins in the 50-yard freestyle last week and will look to replicate her first-place form against a larger field at Loyola. The senior also played a major role in the Pirates’ relay efforts as the women finished the week undefeated in relay races with Zelenky competing on two of three first place squads.
“Alie touching out Rider in that medley relay and setting that tone for us was huge,” added Farina. “Megan Mallon, being able to put her in the medley in the breaststroke helps us because then we can move Kerrie to the freestyle relay.
Hosts Loyola (MD) will be competing for the first time since a tri-meet against Navy and George Mason on October 6. Junior Caitlin Cronin and freshman Kait Richter led the Greyhounds with a pair of top-three individual finishes on the day. In their season debut, the Drexel women fell, 117-157, at local rival La Salle. Senior Lauren Faykes had two wins while Steph Uecker and Rebecca Heffernan each grabbed an additional victory.
Lafayette will be competing in their first meet of 2012-13.
“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. Overall, the women are lining up to have a strong dual meet season.”
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.”
Tomorrow’s meet is a matinee affair, with the teams scheduled to take the pool at 2:00 p.m.
