Seton Hall University
Montclair State (Diving)
WS&D Flies Past Montclair State; 183-93
10/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
MONTCLAIR, N.J. - The Seton Hall women's swimming and diving team opened the 2014-15 campaign in emphatic fashion on Wednesday, recording at least the top-two performances in every event en route to a convincing 183-93 victory over Montclair State.
In the pool, 11 different Pirates recorded individual wins in their season, and in some cases collegiate debuts with sophomore Kelsey Buonaiuto (Miller Place, N.Y.) and senior Jane Ehret (Florida, N.Y.) leading the way with two first-place times apiece.
After not competing last season, the veteran Ehret did not skip a beat in her return to action; topping an all-Seton Hall top-three in the 200-fly that also included Cece Henry (St. Charles, Mo.) and Kylene Ronayne (Springfield, Pa.) with a time of 2:13.90 in her first event.
Ehret later recorded the fastest 100-fly time of the meet at 1:00.87 and was followed to the wall in the race by freshman Kat Carson (Katy, Texas) (1:03.96).
While Ehret swept the butterfly events, Buonaiuto followed suit in the backstroke and registered the quickest 100 and 200-back marks of the evening. The Hall once again occupied the first three spots at 100 yards as the sophomore's 1:02.07 effort placed just ahead of teammates Paige Anderson and Kelly Miller (State College, Pa.).
At 200 yards, Buonaiuto touched first (2:14.06) and was followed by Alexa Santis (Ijamsville, Md.) as the Pirates were in the midst of asserting their dominance.
Ronayne emerged as the class of the 200-IM field, eclipsing her next closest competitor by nearly 10 seconds with a time of 2:12.48 while fellow newcomer Carson powered her way to a 50-free victory by reaching the finish in 25.04.
Madison Harris (Ocala, Fla.) and Rae Congdon (Ottawa, Ontario) split top honors in the 200-free as Congdon closed a .72 second gap in the final leg to finish in a dead heat at 2:02.78, less than one second ahead of teammate Katie Adams (Linwood, N.J.) in third.
The Hall also claimed first and second in each of the breaststroke events as Megan Mallon (Glen Mills, Pa.) eased to victory at 100 yards (1:08.30) ahead of runner-up Annie Bucca (New Brunswick, N.J.) while a pair of freshmen impressed at the 200 yard distance. Newcomer Sydney Simpson (Tallahassee, Fla.) booked her first collegiate victory with a time of 2:28.04 while Courtney Regan (Southbury, Conn.) clocked in next at 2:33.73.
A trio of freestyle winners rounded out The Hall's contingent of victorious swimmers in the opener as sophomore Erica Naumann (Middletown, Conn.) out-paced all other 1,000-free competitors before going on to place second behind Cora Meehan (Noblesville, Ind.) at 500 yards.
A dual school record holder in backstroke events, sophomore Melody Bush (Guelph, Ontario) won the 200-free event by finishing ahead of classmate Tessa Lindner (Sun Prairie, Wisc.) by just under three seconds.
The Pirates also bookended the meet by earning the top-three spots in 200-fly and 400-free relay competition to complete the sweep.
Diving competition was held at The Hall and it was business as usual for reigning BIG EAST Most Outstanding Female Diver Gabby Signorelli (Massapequa, N.Y.) as the junior easily clinched the right to defend her conference titles with event victories from both the one and three meter boards.
Freshman Lindsay McGowan (Roswell, Ga.) also took second from each board in her first collegiate meet.
The win kicks-off a busy fall for the Pirates as both swimming & diving squads will be back in action next Thursday, October 16 when the Pirates travel to Rider. Start-time is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. in Lawrenceville.
