MS&D to Face Hoyas, 'Nova at Rutgers
11/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
LIVE RESULTS
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Off to a combined 11-1 start, the Seton Hall men's and women's swimming and diving squads hit the turnpike tomorrow and head to Piscataway to meet BIG EAST rivals Georgetown and Villanova as well as the Scarlet Knights on the women's side in a two-day competition.
This weekend will serve as a bit of a litmus test for the Pirates who are coming off a convincing sweep of another conference foe in Providence that moved the men's record to 5-1 while the women stayed perfect at 6-0.
While the gaudy records are an accurate representation of early returns on a talented 2014-15 team, ever-looming is the conference championship meet in February. By sharing the pool with three league members in the span of a week, The Hall will get its opportunity to see how this unit measures against the best in the BIG EAST just over a month into the competitive season.
On the men's side, a new-look team for The Hall is off to one of the best starts in the league with Pirates owning the top mark in seven individual events in the pool as well as two relays.
From the diving board however, reigning Most Outstanding Male Diver and newly-minted BIG EAST Men's Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Week Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) continues to lead a trio that is the unquestioned class of the conference.
Mitchell raised the bar yet again from the three-meter board in the victory over the Friars, re-setting his own school record, but BIG EAST medalists Eric Davidson (Overland Park, Kan.) and Alex Pfisterer (Mohnton, Pa.) are rounding into the form that helped The Hall haul a total of five medals from men's diving competition at last year's conference championship.
Georgetown sophomore Jared Cooper-Vespa interrupted the Pirates' dominance with a pair of top-three efforts at the meet and will pose a challenge again this weekend.
Back in the pool, Seton Hall's deep group of newcomers has elevated the team performance level just four meets into their careers.
As a part of a day where the men registered 15 first-place finishes against the Friars, freshman Noah Yanchulis (Arnold, Md.) posted conference-leading times in the 200-free (1:42.97) as well as the 100-fly (51.66). Yanchulis may need to defend his perch atop the 200-free list against second-ranked Jason Moyer (Villanova, 1:43.73) and third-ranked Daniel Ross (Georgetown, 1:44.27) but in the 100-fly, he is immediately followed by teammates Zach DeLillo (Sinking Spring, Pa.) (51.73) and Matt Zebrowski (Sayreville, N.J.) (52.03) in the conference rankings.
Another freshman, Zebrowski also stands as the pace-setter in the 200-fly with a time of 1:54.64 at Rider, over one second ahead of the Hoyas' Samuel DeLise.
Fellow first-year competitor Zohar Suslovich (Holon, Israel) has had an immediate impact as well and enters the weekend as the current top seed in both the 200-back and 100-breast.
Suslovich (1:55.36) is joined by classmate Michael Mattera (Deer Park, N.Y.) and Keith Carlino (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) in the top-four of the 200-back ranks, all coming from times posted at the Loyola (MD) quad meet.
At 100 yards, the trio sits among the top-six in the league with Carlino leading the way after having clocked in at 51.92 at Rider in the second outing of 2014-15.
Seton Hall also boasts the top-three performers in the 100-breast as Suslovich took over the top spot with a time of 58.37 against Providence, moving ahead of Sean Sali (Bridgewater, N.J.) (58.80) and James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.) (59.81).
Suslovich, Sali and Logan are the only BIG EAST competitors to break the one-minute mark in the event this season.
A defending BIG EAST champion, Logan's 2:10.47 in the 200-breast at Rider edges DeLise for the top mark while Sali recorded a 2:12.28 in the meet with the Friars to move into third overall.
The combination of Sali, Carlino, DeLillo and Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) is responsible for the fastest 200-medley relay time in the conference, posting a 1:34.78 at Loyola that is just under 1.5 seconds ahead of the Hoyas in second.
At the same meet, Bosse and Carlino teamed with Yanchulis and freshman Jason Tan (Bridgewater, N.J.) to record a 400-free relay mark of 3:12.03 that is currently the league standard as well.
Start-time is set for 4:00 p.m. on Friday with live results available through this LINK as well as the Meet Mobile App. Competition will resume on Saturday at 10:00 a.m.
