Seton Hall University
Montclair State (Swimming)
MS&D Sweeps MSU in Opener
10/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
MONTCLAIR, N.J. - It was an auspicious start for a Seton Hall men's swimming & diving squad that features a unique mixture of accomplished veterans and a multitude of newcomers as the new-look Pirates cruised to a 185-95 victory at Montclair State on Wednesday.
Nine different team members contributed to a sweep of all 12 individual swimming events as Seton Hall routinely occupied the top three spots from race to race.
Returning All-BIG EAST performers Keith Carlino (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) and Zach DeLillo (Sinking Spring, Pa.) were joined in recording a pair of victories in the pool by freshman Collin Dunn (Litchfield, Conn.) while defending BIG EAST champion Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) nearly opened his final campaign in record-breaking fashion in a two-win performance from the diving board.
In a competition hosted by The Hall, Mitchell came within four points of eclipsing his own school record of 326.05 from the three-meter board, turning in a 322.35 in his first competitive appearance.
The Milford product nearly eclipsed the 300-point mark again (299.4) in a victorious showing from one meter, a fact that is made even more impressive given that Mitchell stands as the only diver in school history to reach the 300-point mark in any six-dive set.
Sophomore Alex Pfisterer (Mohnton, Pa.) picked up a pair of runner-up finishes as he enters his second season looking to build off a fourth-place effort at last year's conference meet.
Carlino registered both of his wins at 100 yards, claiming first-place in both the freestyle and backstroke. His 100-free time of 50.01 paced an All-Pirate top-three as freshman Zohar Suslovich (Holon, Israel) and senior Richard Lessard (Wethersfield, Conn.) placed second and third respectively.
Junior Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) was the runner-up to Carlino's time of 54.03 in the 100-back, clocking in at 55.49 to edge MSU's top finisher.
DeLillo delivered first-place times in the 50-free and 100-fly, each time leading a Seton Hall sweep of the first three positions. In the 100-fly, his 52.27 was more than seven seconds faster than his next closest competitor from Montclair State and paced a group that also included Suslovich and fellow newcomer Ryan Lockhart (Monroe, N.Y.).
Another freshman Sean Sali (Bridgewater, N.J.) placed second behind DeLillo in the sprint freestyle event and was followed to the wall by TJ Merighi (Vineland, N.J.) in third.
Dunn kicked off his collegiate career by sweeping the breaststroke events on the evening, claiming each race by more than a three-second margin. The most impressive gap was in the 200-breast where the Litchfield native bested runner-up Steve Hausmann (North Attleboro, Mass.) by more than nine seconds with a top mark of 2:15.21.
Freshman Mayowa Kujimiyo (Houston, Texas) ranked third in the 200-breast after having collected a second-place time of 1:05.12 in the 100-breast that was bested only by Dunn's 1:01.49 effort.
Hausmann also added a first-place time in the 1,000-free but Dunn was far from the only freshman to make an immediate impact as The Hall's other five victories all came from first-time competitors.
The five wins came in four different disciplines as Garden State natives Jason Tan (Bridgewater, N.J.) (500-free, 5:03.97) and Matt Zebrowski (Sayreville, N.J.) (200-free, 1:50.77) were successful in freestyle events while classmates Michael Mattera (Deer Park, N.Y.) (200-back, 1:59.27), Cody Wimmer (Macungie, Pa.) (200-IM, 2:02.03) and Noah Yanchulis (Arnold, Md.) (200-fly, 1:56.78) all recorded their first collegiate triumphs as well.
Seton Hall will return to action next Thursday, October 16 at Rider. Start-time is slated for 5:00 p.m. from Lawrenceville.
