Seton Hall University
Day Two
Yanchulis, Grubert Claim Titles on Day Two
2/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
MEET RESULTS
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - Day two of the 2016 BIG EAST Championships yielded two gold medals for the Seton Hall men's swimming & diving team as sophomore Noah Yanchulis (Arnold, Md.) claimed the top prize in a thrilling 500-yard freestyle final while standout freshman Lior Grubert (Yehud-Monosson, Israel) opened his title account with a win in the 200-IM.
With wins in two of the four swimming events held on Thursday, The Pirates will head into day three sitting in third at 210 points behind Georgetown (263) and reigning champions Xavier (287).
Yanchulis, who captured a 200-free title in his first trip to the conference meet last season, became the fifth Pirate on the men's side to earn multiple BIG EAST championships by leading wire-to-wire in the 500-free. Seeded fourth following the preliminary round; Yanchulis dropped over 6.5 seconds in the night session and held off a hard-charging Jacob Kohloff of Georgetown to touch in at a first-place time of 4:26.75.
Classmate Cody Wimmer (Macungie, Pa.) placed fifth to land a podium finish in the event as well.
With a number of events still to swim, Yanchulis has guaranteed he will join a group that includes Kevin Webster, Sean Gowrie, Ben Mitchell and JC Logan as men's competitors whose names appear multiple times on the championship banner.
A four-time BIG EAST Performer of the Week during his rookie campaign, Grubert could be well on his way to becoming the sixth and the first ever to accomplish the feat in his debut season after out-pacing the 200-IM field in both prelims and the night session.
Grubert logged a time of 1:50.80 in the morning to earn the middle lane in the championship event but fell behind Villanova's John Hoin on the opening leg. Grubert usurped the front position at the midway point and did not relinquish his hold, clocking in at 1:50.12, ahead of Hoin (1:50.39) in second.
Sophomore Zohar Suslovich (Holon, Israel) reached the wall in sixth, moving up two spots from the morning's preliminary action.
Senior diver Eric Davidson (Overland Park, Kan.) added a third-place finish of his own from the three meter board, diving to a final score of 533.05 and picking up his fifth BIG EAST medal in the process.
In his first individual event on the conference stage, freshman Dakota Williams (Noank, Conn.) was the primary challenger to an all-Xavier top-three in the 50-free, registering a fourth-place finish with a finals time of 20.46 that was just .02 seconds outside the bronze medal spot.
Four Pirates appeared in B finals on day two including Ivan Michalovic (Glen Mills, Pa.) (11th) and Cooper Lindsley (Lancaster, Pa.) (15th) in the 500-free, Chris Tucker (Middletown, N.J.) (12th) in the 50-free and Matt Zebrowski (Sayreville, N.J.) (14th) in the 200-IM.
In relay competition, Yanchulis, Williams, Tucker and David Rowe (Cherry Hill, N.J.) teamed for a 200-free time of 1:22.80; finishing only .03 seconds short of the runner-up spot.
Competition will resume from the Nassau Aquatic Center on Friday, February 25 with preliminary heats beginning at 10:00 a.m. and championship events scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. The entire championship meet can be seen live and for free on the BIG EAST Digital Network through the FOX Sports GO app.
For updates on the Pirates throughout the day, follow @SHUSwimDive on Twitter.
