Seton Hall University
BIG EAST Championship
Logan Wins 200-Breast Gold; Pirates Place Third
2/23/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Feb. 23, 2014
SEWELL, N.J. - One day after leaving the 100-yard breaststroke podium with a bronze medal around his neck, Seton Hall junior James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.) returned to the pool at the Gloucester Institute of Technology and put an exclamation mark on the 2014 BIG EAST Championships by turning in a golden effort in the 200-breaststroke.
Logan entered the meet as the #1 seed in the event, a spot he did not surrender in preliminaries or with the title on the line. The Pennsylvania product led 17 200-breast competitors with a 2:06.49 in preliminary action. He later went on to earn his first BIG EAST title by shaving nearly two seconds off that mark in the night session, besting runner-up Michael Gordon of Xavier by almost .4 seconds with a finals time of 2:04.09.
The championship was the first for a Seton Hall male swimmer since former Pirate Kevin Webster took home the 400-IM and 200-back titles from the 2011 meet. Logan's victory also gave the men's swimming & diving team three BIG EAST Championships for the season overall after fellow Keystone State native Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) swept the conference diving meet one week ago.
Logan's championship effort highlighted an explosive day four for The Hall that lifted the Pirates to a third-place finish with 492 points.
Xavier captured the team hardware with 924 points while Georgetown placed second with 715.50 collective points.
Senior Ian DeLisio (Woodstock, N.Y.) joined Logan in the 200-breast final, capping his career with a personal-best sixth-place finish by reaching the wall in 2:09.35 in the night cap. Classmate Joey Lacus (Wethersfield, Conn.) also added a second-place showing in the 'B' final, recording a time of 2:09.23.
The Hall also sent two swimmers into the championship finals of the 200-fly and 200-back as junior Zach DeLillo (Sinking Spring, Pa.) and senior Matt Benson (Overland Park, Kan.) led the way with sixth-place times in each respective event.
DeLillo raced to a time of 1:54.90 to rank among the top-six in the 200-fly, reaching the wall just ahead of teammate Tyler Naumann (Middletown, Conn.) in seventh (1:55.46). Sophomore Andrew William (Bayonne, N.J.) contributed a 10th-place time of 1:57.43, while senior Greg Black (Easton, Pa.) ranked 11th.
In the 200-back, it was Benson advancing to his second championship final in as many days, finishing in 1:51.64 to earn sixth-place points. Freshman Keith Carlino (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) built upon the momentum of dominating the 100-back 'B' final on Friday night, this time securing a spot in the championship race and placing eighth overall.
Classmate Xavier Jimenez (Cincinnati, Ohio) also came in among the top-10 in the league, swimming to a 1:52.39 mark to finish as the runner-up in the consolation race.
Logan and Carlino also joined forces with Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) and Zach Suter (Aurora, Colo.) to take third in the 400-free relay by virtue of a 3:05.65 showing that was just under four seconds faster than the team's seed time.
Senior Jon Ropson (McKinney, Texas) pitched in another top-eight effort, pacing the Pirates in the 1,650-free with an eighth-place time of 16:18.38 while Suter (47.23, 13th) and Bosse (47.46, 14th) were the squad's top performers in the 100-free event.
The collection of strong outings not only wrapped up a third-place team finish but closed the 2013-14 campaign as well.
Mitchell will continue competition in early March when he is one of three Pirate divers who will travel to Blacksburg, Va. for the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships.
