Men's Swim & Dive Heads to Patriot Invite
11/20/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Nov. 20, 2013
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Coming off its second-straight dual meet victory, the Seton Hall men's swimming & diving squad readies to take on a field that includes eight other schools at this week's Patriot Invitational; the Pirates' final competition of the fall.
Against Iona last time out, the SHU men raced to a convincing victory behind a total of 11 first-place efforts. As has often been the case during the early portion of the 2012-13 campaign, junior James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.) and sophomore Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) were at the center of Seton Hall's charge up the scoreboard.
Logan was part of the winning 200-yard medley relay squad and later finished first in the 200-yard breaststroke, an event in which he is currently the top-seeded individual in the BIG EAST. Logan turned in a time of 2:12.46 at the Loyola (MD) quad meet earlier this season, a mark that still stands as the fastest in the league. He also ranks second among all conference swimmers in the 100-yard breaststroke; carrying over the momentum he built by finishing as one of the Pirates' top performers at the 2013 BIG EAST Championships.
Bosse increased his season win total with another victory in the 200-yard freestyle, one of three freestyle events in which he rates among the top-six swimmers in the conference to this point in the season. Bosse was among the team leaders in total automatic qualifying marks achieved as a freshman last season and figures to factor greatly into the Pirates' push to claim a number of championships at the conference meet in February.
Junior transfer Zach DeLillo (Sinking Spring, Pa.) is no stranger to championships having swum for a Rider squad that was the class of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). Up against his old conference foes in the Gaels, he found a new gear and recorded a victory in the 100-fly with a time of 51.13 that is just over .2 seconds off of Benjamin Smith's (Villanova) conference-leading mark.
Combining the facts that the competition signifies the conclusion of the fall schedule for SHU and that the nine-team format offers a very similar atmosphere to that of a championship meet, the Patriot Invitational serves as a useful barometer for the squad heading into winter intermission.
It also provides a landmark at which to assess the progress of the team, an assessment that this year, paints a picture that Seton Hall will be in the thick of a number of title chases. The Pirates boast a top-eight performer in all but one of the 12 championship swimming events in which they have competed, highlighted by three in Logan, Ian DeLisio (Woodstock, N.Y.) and Joey Lacus (Wethersfield, Conn.) who are among the top-seven in the 100-breast.
From the diving board, Seton Hall's duo of Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) and Eric Davidson (Overland Park, Kan.) have been making a season-long case that they are the strongest set of teammates in the conference. Already arguably the most accomplished male diver in school history, Mitchell has been routinely exceptional, topping 300 points from both boards and even re-setting the one and three-meter school records he already owned. He has already booked a return trip to the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships after earning a second dive as a sophomore and appears ready to challenge for the title of the first Seton Hall diver of any gender to take home a conference championship.
Following a strong close to a freshman season in which he too scored at the BIG EAST Championships for The Hall, a year of experience coupled with an adjustment in his dive selection has made a world of difference for Davidson. He has consistently outperformed his season-best scores from a year ago and along with Mitchell has contributed valuable points to a number of team victories.
At this week's three-day meet in Fairfax, Va., the Pirates will take on , American University, George Washington University, Howard University, University of Richmond, Shippensburg University (Pa.), University of Maryland-Baltimore County and UNC-Wilmington and hosts George Mason.
Daily updates will be provided on SHUPirates.com and live results can be followed here
