BIG EAST Day Four Preview

Feb. 22, 2014

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The 2014 BIG EAST Championships will conclude on Saturday at the Gloucester Institute of Technology as the conference's best are set to compete in five individual events as well as the 400-free relay on the final day of the four-day meet.

Both the SHU men and women enter the day ranked third in the team standings. Xavier is pacing the men's competition while Villanova has the inside track on the women's title.

Seton Hall will enter three events on Saturday with the #1 overall seed, looking to add to the five individual championships the swimming & diving teams have already collected.

One day after establishing a new 100-back school record, freshman Melody Bush (Guelph, Ontario) will look to add to her bronze medal with a gold in the 200-back, an event in which she owns a conference-leading time of 2:03.19 that doubles as another school record. Sophomore Cora Meehan (Noblesville, Ind.) will look to make it two Pirates on the podium as the sixth seed.

The Pirates also figure to factor prominently into the 200-breaststroke championship picture as senior Kerrie Kolackovsky (Franklin Square, N.Y.) and James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.) are each seeded first. Kolackovsky took home The Hall's first conference title in the pool in 20 years by besting the 100-breast field yesterday while Logan placed third for the men and will set his sights on becoming SHU's first men's champion since Kevin Webster in 2011.

Sophomore Megan Mallon (Glen Mills, Pa.), fresh off a silver medal performance in the 100-breast, is also primed to challenge the top of the field and could very well end up back near the top of the podium as the #4 seed in the 200-breast.

Kolackovsky is also seeded sixth in the rigorous 1,650-freestyle as is freshman Cece Henry (St. Charles, Mo.) who posted the team's best 200-fly time during the regular season Henry is joined in the top-10 200 fly seeds by Kelly Markwell (Old Bridge, N.J.) and classmate Tessa Lindner (Sun Prairie, Wis.).

Matt Benson (Overland Park, Kan.) and Zach DeLillo (Sinking Spring, Pa.) each advanced to a championship final on Friday and are set for a repeat performance on day four. Benson placed eighth in the 100-back and is seeded ninth in the 200-back while DeLillo tied for sixth in the 100-fly and enters the 200-fly race with the seventh-fastest seed time.

In the 200-back, freshman Keith Carlino (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) will also be a swimmer to watch after he won the 100-back 'B' final with a time that would have ranked third in the championship race.

In relay competition, the second-seeded women's 400-free relay squad of Kolackovsky, Bush, Rae Congdon (Ottawa, Ontario) and Gabi Levine (Garwood, N.J.) has the Pirates well-positioned to take aim at the school's first-ever relay title.

Heading into the final day, here is a snapshot of where the Pirates rank in the events yet to be completed:

200-YARD BACKSTROKE

WOMEN

School Record: M. Bush, 2:03.19 (2013)
2013-14 Conference Leader: Melody Bush (Seton Hall) - 2:03.19