Seton Hall University
Navy Invite
Pirates Dominant in Final Regular Season Meet at Navy
1/31/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
ANNAPOLIS, MD. - Three victories from freshman Lior Grubert (Yehud-Monosson, Israel) headlined a day in which the Seton Hall men's swimming & diving team closed the regular season by dominating at the Navy Invitational.
The meet was unscored but The Hall took first in 11 of 16 events with Grubert leading a group of three Pirates who recorded multiple individual victories as sophomore Noah Yanchulis (Arnold, Md.) and Dakota Williams (Noank, Conn.) each added two.
Newcomers Ivan Michalovic (Glen Mills, Pa.) and Kyle Nash (Katy, Texas) joined sophomore Matt Zebrowski (Sayreville, N.J.) in recording one first-place effort.
Yanchulis, Tucker and Williams also teamed with David Rowe (Cherry Hill, N.J.) to post a relay win as SHU emerged as the class of a meet that included American, Bucknell, Lafayette, Loyola (MD) and Shippensburg on the men's side.
 | WINNER'S CIRCLE |
- Grubert made his case for yet another BIG EAST Athlete of the week award with a trio of first-place times, pushing his season total to a remarkable 21 in his debut campaign. On two occasions, his closest competition came from teammate Zohar Suslovich (Holon, Israel) as the Seton Hall pair went 1-2 in both backstroke events. At 200-yards, Grubert headlined a dominant showing for The Hall that saw four Pirates finish inside the top-eight; winning with a time of 1:49.56. Suslovich was the runner up in 1:50.13 while Nash (1:59.98) and Rowe (2:00.38) placed fifth and seventh respectively. In the 100-back, Grubert's 51.07 was nearly one second faster than a 52.02 mark from Suslovich.
- The 400-IM brought another Seton Hall sweep of the top-two positions that was led by Grubert as the freshman clocked a time of 3:57.64 that was miles ahead of the field as Nash took second in 4:09.87. Rob Pollastro of Lafayette did not touch in until the 4:14.52 mark, giving Grubert a +16.88 second margin of victory over his closest competitor from another squad.
- Williams has helped transform the Pirates' sprint freestyle presence in his first collegiate season and on Saturday, he added two more wins in the 50 and 100-free event. The Noank native went 47.00 in the 100 to pace three Seton Hall swimmers in the top-five as Chris Tucker (Middletown, N.J.) finished in 48.06 to take third followed by a fifth-place time of 48.40 from Rowe. Williams also out-dueled Loyola's Ruslan Kopunek (21.43) in the 50 to finish atop the 48-man field with a 21.31 effort. Tucker placed sixth in 22.00
- Always a versatile threat, Yanchulis added to his collection of wins with the top 500-free and 200-breast performances of the day. Back in his native Maryland, Yanchulis needed just 4:41.02 to complete the 500-free while teammate Cody Wimmer (Macungie, Pa.) added a third-place time of 4:48.12. In the 200-breast, Yanchulis touched in with 2:08.47 on the clock - completing a wire-to-wire victory.
- The Hall also swept the individual butterfly events as Nash turned in a 200-fly time of 1:53.74, that stood as the day's best. Ian Campbell (Corvallis, Ore.) over took Sam Haines of Lafayette on the way in to move up to fourth (1:58.91). Zebrowski benefited from a similar push on the homestretch in the 100-fly, powering his way to a time of 51.94 and bumping Suslovich back to the second spot where he finished in 52.20
- Michalovic improved upon his previous season-best time in the 200-IM by more than 3.6 seconds, registering a 1:55.08 mark to take the win.
| RELAY REPLAY |
- Yanchulis, Tucker, Rowe and Williams teamed to add a win in the 200-free relay, combining for a 1:24.90. Tucker helped the squad move in front on the second leg and the lead was never relinquished.
- Grubert, Suslovich, Rowe and Yanchulis came within .5 seconds of another victory in the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:34.22.
| FROM THE BOARD |
- In one meter competition, senior Eric Davidson (Overland Park, Kan.) placed fourth out of 13 competitors with a score of 253.50.
| NEXT UP |
The Pirates will get several weeks off from competition before traveling to the Nassau Acquatic Center for the 2016 BIG EAST Championships from February 24-27.
