Seton Hall University
Montclair State
Freshmen Power Pair of Opening Day Victories
10/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall men's swimming and diving team opened the 2015-16 season impressive fashion on Friday, sweeping in-state foes Saint Peter's and Montclair State in front of a home crowd at Arthur E. Imperatore Natatorium.
The Pirates flew past the Peacocks by a 130-75 score while the matchup between SHU and MSU ended in a 148-103 decision.
The Hall scored a total of 10 victories on the night with all eight of the individual wins coming courtesy of freshmen making their respective collegiate debuts.
Head coach Ron Farina's squad also added a pair of first-place finishes in relay action to add to a dominant performance that included 26 top-three efforts in 16 events.
 | WINNER'S CIRCLE |
- Freshman Lior Grubert (Yehud-Monosson, Israel) was at the head of the class, posting three first-place times in the 200-free, 100-free and 100-IM. Grubert (1:43.74) was nearly 2.5 seconds faster than the runner-up in the 200-free and was later credited with a time of 47.69 that was .02 seconds faster than the one recorded by classmate Dakota Williams (Noank, Conn.) in the 100-free
- Williams picked up his first collegiate victory with a 21.40 in the 50-free, sprinting past sophomore and returning BIG EAST champion Noah Yanchulis (Arnold, Md.) who claimed second
- Rookie David Rowe (Cherry Hill, N.J.) closed his first outing as a Pirate with a pair of wins at the 100-yard distance, leading wire-to-wire in both the 100-fly and 100-back. Each time, Rowe swam to victory less than a second ahead of a fellow Pirate in the runner-up position
- Newcomer Kyle Nash (Katy, Texas) picked up a win in 200-fly competition, coming back on the closing leg to post a 1:55.52 mark that edged Nicholas Riepe of Saint Peter's
- Ivan Michalovic (Glen Mills, Pa.) (1:56.99) out-touched Yanchulis (1:57.06) to close out his victory in the 200-back, becoming the fifth Pirate to score his first career win in the opener
 | RELAY REPLAY |
The Pirates claimed the top-two places in both relay events, opening the meet by going 1-2 in the 200-medley relay and closing it by sweeping first and second position in 200 free relay competition
- Williams and Rowe combined with classmate Chris Tucker (Middletown, N.J.) and sophomore Sean Sali (Bridgewater, N.J.) to out-pace the team of Nash, Collin Dunn (Litchfield, Conn.), Michael Mattera (Deer Park, N.Y.) and Cody Wimmer (Macungie, Pa.) in 200-medley action, increasing their advantage on each leg before finishing with a 1:35.16 mark
- Grubert, Rowe, Yanchulis and Matt Zebrowski (Sayreville, N.J.) steadily widened the gap in similar fashion during the 200 free relay race, finishing ahead of Dunn, Michalovic, Sali and Wimmer with a victorious time of 1:28.33
| PIRATE NOTABLES |
- The Seton Hall men have dropped just one of their last four home openers
- Yanchulis (59.31), Sali (1:00.27) and Dunn (1:01.15) finished 2-3-4 in the 100-breast
- Yanchulis finished second in three events overall (100-breast, 50-free, 100-back), never finishing more than .8 seconds off the winning pace
- Both Tucker and William Smith (Halifax, Nova Scotia) added top-three finishes as well, nearly pushing the total of freshmen with a victory to seven
- Zebrowski (100 fly) and Wimmer (500 free) added runner-up times of their own
| NEXT UP |
The Pirates will head to Morgantown, W. Va. to take on BIG EAST rivals Butler and Xavier along with the host Mountaineers in a two-day quad meet scheduled to begin on Friday, October 23. Start-time is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on the opening day and events will resume at 10:00 a.m. the following morning.
