Seton Hall University
BIG EAST Championship
200-IM Highlights Day Two for WS&D
2/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Feb. 21, 2014
SEWELL, N.J. - Senior Kerrie Kolackovsky (Franklin Square, N.Y.) and freshman Melody Bush (Guelph, Ontario) each represented the Pirates in the championship final of the 200-IM on Thursday night, finishing second and seventh respectively to highlight the action on day two of the 2014 BIG EAST Championships for the Seton Hall women's swimming & diving team.
Kolackovsky entered the meet with the fastest seed time in the conference and placed third in the morning's preliminary race with a time of 2:04.88. In the night session, she reached the wall in 2:04.19 - just .13 seconds off of her own school record in the event - and behind only Villanova's Sara Jurek.
Bush was seeded fifth, and reached the wall in seventh during both prelims (2:08.86) and the final (2:08.54) to pick up more critical points for The Hall in her first-ever individual event at the conference championships.
Another freshman in Kelsey Buonaiuto (Miller Place, N.Y.) also earned a second swim in the event, ultimately placing 16th after turning in a time of 2:10.85 in the consolation final.
The two other individual events included in Thursday's competition were the 50 and 500-yard freestyles; and the Seton Hall women finished with one scorer in each.
Sophomore Cora Meehan (Noblesville, Ind.) was The Hall's top seeded swimmer heading into the 500-free race and came through with a team-best performance in the event. After ranking 12th following the morning swim, Meehan improved her prelim time by nearly two seconds maintain her hold on the 12th position.
Classmate Rae Congdon (Ottawa, Ontario) narrowly missed out on giving The Hall two representatives in the consolation race, ranking 17th in preliminaries after touching in 5:14.43, less than one second outside the top-16.
In the 50-free, senior Kelly Markwell (Old Bridge, N.J.) picked up a 16th-place finish by reaching the wall in 25.08 in the B final, adding a fifth individual scoring effort for The Hall on the day.
The Pirates also added fifth-place points in the 200-free relay as Markwell, Buonaiuto, Gabi Levine (Garwood, N.J.) and Tessa Lindner (Sun Prairie, Wis.) swam to a season-best time of 1:38.39.
Through two days of swimming events, the Seton Hall women stand in third place with 202 points. Georgetown is in second with 302.50 points and Villanova leads with 334.50 points.
Competition resumes at 10 a.m. tomorrow as the championships continue on day three of four from the Gloucester Institute of Technology. Events scheduled include the 400-IM, 100-fly, 200-free, 100-breast, 100-back and the 400-medley relay.
SHUPirates.com will have a preview of all the action tomorrow morning and be sure to follow @SHUSwimDive on Twitter throughout the meet for continuous updates.
