Seton Hall University
Bucknell University Invitational
Mitchell Leads SHU at BU Invite
2/3/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
LEWISBURG, PA. – The Seton Hall men’s swimming & diving team joined five other squads in traveling to Lewisburg on Saturday to compete in the Bison Invitational, hosted by Bucknell University.
BU and Seton Hall were accompanied by American, Army, Delaware, Lafayette and Shippensburg in taking part in the unscored meet.
Aside from the absence of final team rankings, the results sheet bears some familiar features as sophomore diver Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) placed his name atop all competing divers from both the one and three-meter boards. In the one-meter, Mitchell’s final tally of 285.05 was the highest among 10 competitors by over a 25-point margin. The Milford native only furthered his dominance from three-meters, scoring 308.65 to take first by 54.65 points. In addition to setting new school record from both distances, Mitchell now has eight first place scores to his name this season.
Freshman Eric Davidson (Overland Park, Kan.) placed sixth in both competitions, missing BIG EAST Championship automatic qualifying standards by less than two points with a career-high score of 238.30 from one-meter.
In the pool, the Pirates got off to a fast start in more ways than one as Joey Lacus (Wethersfield, Conn.), James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.), Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) and Ryan O'Shaughnessy (Coral Springs, Fla.) combined to place second in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:27.63.
Between them, the quartet went on to finish among the top-two on the team in an individual event nine different times.
Bosse was the Pirates’ top finisher on three occasions, leading the way in the 200-IM, 200-back and 50-free. The freshman finished ninth in the 200-IM ahead of Logan in 14th for SHU and placed a team-best 12th among 55 swimmers in the 50-free, where he was immediately followed in the final rankings by Lacus (13th) and O’Shaughnessy (t-14th).
Bosse’s and subsequently team’s best individual finish of the day came in the 200-back where he ranked third with a time of 1:58.21. Junior Matt Benson (Overland Park, Kan.) turned in a seventh-place effort, finishing in 2:03.50. Benson also ranked among the top-10 in the 100-back, pacing The Hall with a ninth-place finish (56.08). Junior Evan Forbes (Cinnaminson, N.J.) wasn’t far off Benson’s mark, finishing in 56.77 to take 12th.
Logan (18th, 49.38) and O’Shaughnessy (20th, 49.53) comprised SHU’s top duo in the 100-free, placing just ahead of Richard Lessard (Wethersfield, Conn.) and Andrew William (Bayonne, N.J.) who ranked back-to-back in 22nd and 23rd respectively.
Lessard went on to post a career-best time of 1:48.32 in the 200-free, leading the team by ranking 11th among all swimmers after finishing just six-hundredths of a second outside the top-10.
The Pirates received major contributions from junior Tyler Naumann (Middletown, Conn.) and freshman Joey Giovine as well as they each paced the squad in two events. Their efforts were highlighted by Giovine’s performance in the 200-breast, as the freshman shaved nearly 10 seconds off his time last week against Marist and produced a personal-best mark of 2:12.15, ranking sixth on the day and earning a spot at the 2013 BIG EAST Championship.
Giovine also led SHU in the 100-breast, where he finished just .08 seconds off of conference qualifying standards (1:02.07) in 14th place. Bosse ranked 17th overall with a personal-best mark of 1:03.34 while Lacus finished in 1:03.52 to occupy 19th.
Naumann carried the torch for Seton Hall in the two butterfly events at Bucknell, recording team-best times in both the 100 and 200-yard races. Naumann placed seventh in the 200-fly (2:01.97), ranking just ahead of classmate Ian DeLisio (Woodstock, N.Y.) who placed eighth with a time of 2:02.40. He went on to finish one spot ahead of another classmate, Greg Black (Easton, Pa.), in the 100-fly with a 12th-place mark of 54.05. Black clocked in at 54.35 to take 13th.
The Pirates will be back in action next Friday, February 8, when they begin a two-day tri-meet hosted by Rutgers University. SHU will square-off with Villanova and Georgetown as RU does not field a men’s swimming & diving team. Start-time is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on day one.
