Seton Hall University
Patriot Invitational
MS&D in Fourth at Patriot Invite
11/16/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
FAIRFAX, VA. – The Seton Hall men’s swimming and diving team delivered a number of notable performances on day one of the Patriot Invitational, eclipsing the squad’s previous top mark of the season in four events.
Senior captain Ryan O'Shaughnessy (Coral Springs, Fla.) led the charge, taking full advantage of his individual swim. In the 200-yard individual medley, an event in which former Pirate Kevin Webster set the meet record in 2009, O’Shaughnessy placed seventh in preliminaries and later swam to a second place finish in the final (1:53.63). The result was the best finish for any Pirate on the day and was six seconds faster than the team’s fastest time entering the day.
Ian DeLisio (Woodstock, N.Y.) also scored for SHU in the event by recording a 15th place time overall by clocking in at 1:58.62. O’Shaughnessy and DeLisio were one-half of a quartet of Pirates that included Andrew William (Bayonne, N.J.) and Matt Benson (Overland Park, Kan.) that qualified for the BIG EAST Championships in the 200-yard individual medley on Thursday.
William finished 22nd (1:59.85) and Benson placed 26th (2:00.37) in preliminaries to earn a spot at the conference meet in February.
The 500-yard freestyle yielded the most balanced effort of the opening day for The Hall, as the team scored 41 points in the event to lead all competing squads.
After ranking sixth, seventh and eighth respectively following preliminary heats, Ian Keyser (Petersburg, N.J.), Austin Acheson (Olathe, Kan.) and Jon Ropson (McKinney, Texas) occupied nearly half of the available spots in the final. In the night cap, the Seton Hall trio again finished 6-7-8 with Keyser reaching the wall in 4:40.89 to lead the group.
Freshman Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) and junior Tyler Naumann (Middletown, Conn.) closed their individual nights by finishing back-to-back in the B final, earning 14th and 15th place points. As a part of the effort; Keyser, Ropson, Bosse and Naumann all came in under the BIG EAST automatic qualifying mark for the first time this season.
SHU also picked up its first three qualifying times in the 50-yard freestyle as Joey Lacus (Wethersfield, Conn.), James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.) and Greg Black (Easton, Pa.) all accomplished the feat.
Lacus registered a time of 21.77 to finish prelims tied for 18th before finishing 19th overall in the finals. Logan’s mark of 21.80 was tied for the 20th fastest prelim time while Black was 24th overall (21.95). The two later finished in succession with Black in 23rd and Logan in 24th in the night session.
In all, the Pirates recorded 11 new qualifying times on day one in the pool. The addition of Lacus, Keyser, Naumann, Ropson and William pushes the team’s list of BIG EAST qualifiers to 14 members to this point in the season.
Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) and Eric Davidson (Ovderland Park, Kan.) took to the one-meter board in between swimming sessions, and both advanced to the final. Mitchell earned third place points with a score of 261.45 after finishing second in preliminaries. Davidson placed eighth in the finals after ranking seventh out of 12 divers following his first dive set and earning a second opportunity.
In relay action, several of the aforementioned figures played a central role in capturing key points for the team. Lacus, Black, O’Shaughnessy and Logan teamed to finish fifth in the 200-yard freestyle relay while William joined forces with Evan Forbes (Cinnaminson, N.J.), Richard Lessard (Wethersfield, Conn.), and Joey Giovine to place 13th.
The Hall later turned in a pair of top-10 finishes in the 400-yard medley relay as the two Pirate entries finished ninth and 10th to wrap up the day’s program.
Through 12 total events, the Seton Hall men sit in fourth place out of eight teams with 155 points. UNC-Wilmington holds the early lead with 280 points.
Friday will mark day two of the three-day event as action will resume with the 400-yard individual medley prelims. Start-time is set for approximately 10:00 a.m.
