Seton Hall University
BIG EAST Day Three
Mitchell, Yanchulis Capture Titles on Day Three
2/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
DAY THREE RESULTS | DAY TWO RESULTS | DAY ONE RESULTS | CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
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ITHACA, N.Y. - The Seton Hall men's swimming and diving team added two individual conference titles to its growing collection on day three at the BIG EAST Championships as senior diver Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) and freshman swimmer Noah Yanchulis (Arnold, Md.) made program history by earning their way to the top of the podium on Friday.
Mitchell emphatically closed a two-year run in which he swept all four diving titles with a victorious score of 644.10 from the three-meter board that was nearly 80 points clear of runner-up Jared Cooper-Vespa (Georgetown).
Seeded third in the 200-free final following a 1:41.00 showing in preliminaries, Yanchulis stepped up to deliver a finals time of 1:39.58 that earned him the distinction of being the sixth men's swimmer in program history to be called a BIG EAST champion.
Each victory was historic in its own right as Mitchell became the first four-time titlist on the men's side for The Hall and just the second overall, joining SHU Athletics Hall of Famer Jen Heider. For Yanchulis, not only did he capture SHU's first swimming gold medal of 2015 but he became just the second member of the men's program to ever do so in a freestyle event and the first since Sean Gowrie did so in 1994.
Friday also marked the first time that the Seton Hall men have crowned two different conference champions in the same day.
The pair of triumphant performances helped The Hall keep a stranglehold on third-place in the team standings as the Pirates finished the day with 468 total points; 181 more than fourth-place Villanova. Xavier holds the lead with 627 while Georgetown is just in front of SHU with 523.
The exploits of Mitchell and Yanchulis were supported by a strong Pirate contingent in eaxch event as junior Eric Davidson (Overland Park, Kan.) became a four-time BIG EAST medalist by holding off the Hoyas' Ben Goodfriend for third from the three-meter board while junior Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.) chipped in a victory in the 200-free B final.
Bosse's 1:41.92 showing led three Seton Hall representatives in the B final as Cooper Lindsley (Lancaster, Pa.) placed 11th and Jason Tan (Bridgewater, N.J.) claimed 13th-place.
The two title victories headlined a day that was mere ticks away from being even more historic as Seton Hall added runner-up performances in two of the four other individual events and collected a total of five top-five efforts.
Keith Carlino (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) put the 100-back field on notice with a top time of 50.73 in the morning session to head into the final as the #1 seed. Carlino nearly replicated the pace-setting effort at night, adding just .08 seconds, but was edged by Xavier's Arthur Smith (49.89).
Freshman Zohar Suslovich (Holon, Israel) clocked in at 51.12 to rank sixth in the 100-back championship but his day also brought a silver medal as the newcomer came within .2 seconds of claiming the 100-breast crown.
Suslovich was seeded fifth after going 57.53 in the morning and came back to shave over a second off his time (56.45) but his charge at the finish was held off by the Musketeers' Carter Clark (56.25).
Senior James Logan (Wallingford, Pa.) came in .3 seconds after Suslovich to earn bronze while freshman Sean Sali (Bridgewater, N.J.) cracked the top-five with a finals time of 56.97.
In both the 100-back and 100-breast a Seton Hall newcomer added a scoring time in the B final as Collin Dunn (Litchfield, Conn.) ranked 13th in the breaststroke while classmate Michael Mattera (Deer Park, N.Y.) took 14th in backstroke competition.
Seton Hall was also paced by rookies in the two other individual events on Friday as Matt Zebrowski (Sayreville, N.J.) and Cody Wimmer (Macungie, Pa.) delivered team-leading times in the 100-fly and 400-IM.
Zebrowski teamed with Zach DeLillo (Sinking Spring, Pa.) to take sixth and seventh in the butterfly while in his second finals appearance in as many days, Wimmer came in 8th in the 400-IM.
Carlino, Suslovich, DeLillo and Yanchulis later combined to come within three seconds of the program's first-ever relay title, placing second behind Xavier (3:19.31) in the 400-medley relay with a time of 3:22.18. The mark eclipsed the previous school record of 3:22.95 that was set in 2011.
Ian Campbell (Corvallis, Ore.) was the runner-up in a 400-IM B final that included four Pirates, placing 10th overall. Mattera was next in 11th while Seth Underwood (Collegeville, Pa.) and Steve Hausmann (North Attleboro, Mass.) were among the top-15 as well.
Freshman Ryan Lockhart (Monroe, N.Y.) added a 13th-place finish in the 100-fly.
The championships will conclude from Ithaca on Saturday with six swimming events still to be held on the men's side. The program for the final day is slated to include the 100 and 1,650-free races as well as the 200-back, 200-breast, 200-fly and 400-free relay competitions.
A live stream of the championships will once again be available on the BIG EAST Digital Network and FOX Sports Go. Preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. from the Ithaca College Athletics and Events Center Aquatics Pavilion with finals starting at 6:00 p.m.
The 1,650-free event is scheduled to begin at 3:45 p.m.
Follow @SHUSwimDive on Twitter for updates and check back on SHUPirates.com for previews and recaps of the day's action.
