Seton Hall University
Day Three
Simpson, Signorelli Dominate Day Three at BIG EAST
2/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
RESULTS
PSYCH SHEETS
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - One record-setting championship account closed while another one opened as senior Gabby Signorelli (Massapequa, N.Y.) and sophomore Sydney Simpson (Tallahassee, Fla.) made their way to the top of the podium for the Seton Hall women's swimming & diving team on Friday at the 2016 BIG EAST Championships.
Signorelli and Simpson both delivered historic performances to headline a day that featured five A final appearances in the pool and scoring efforts from 14 different Pirates on the women's side.
The single most decorated competitor in program history, Signorelli added to what was already a program-best collection of individual titles by capping her career with a sixth consecutive win on the BIG EAST stage. The senior finished with a tally of 544.05 points from the three-meter board, out-scoring runner-up Sara Jaklitsch of Georgetown by nearly 90 points. The win completed a third consecutive sweep of both diving events for Signorelli at the conference meet as she is the only female diver to take home gold since the conference realigned prior to the 2013-14 campaign.
With two more wins, Signorelli is well on her way to earning a third BIG EAST Most Outstanding Diver Award as well.
While Signorelli had achieved at a championship level before, Simpson turned in perhaps the best one-day performance of her career, shattering school records and closing the evening atop the podium as the 100-breast champ.
The Tallahassee native earned a spot in both the 100-breast and 100-fly finals by shooting out of the gate with a pair of school record times in each event during preliminaries.
Simpson went on to come in under her prelim time and establish a new program standard en route to a fourth-place finish time of 54.64 in the 100-fly. With the 100-breast title up for grabs, the Tallahassee product was in third position at the final turn but rocketed to the wall to touch in at 1:02.87 and claim the gold by a margin of .07 seconds.
Simpson is the first Seton Hall female swimmer to win a championship since Kerrie Kolackovsky in 2014.
Teammate Megan Mallon (Glen Mills, Pa.) turned in her third top-three performance in the event in as many years, taking home bronze with a finals time of 1:03.35. The previous school record holder in the event entering the day, Mallon bested the previous standard twice on the day as well.
Melody Bush (Guelph, Ontario) and Aitana Robinson (London, Ontario) made their way into the A final of the 100-back, finishing in fifth and seventh respectively with times of 56.41 and 57.33.
Bush, Mallon, Simpson and Courtney McCardle (Hurley, N.Y.) closed the night with a 400-medley relay time of 3:48.78 that was good enough for fourth and just .36 seconds off the school record pace.
McCardle was among nine Pirates who scored in B final appearances on Friday, leading a trio of Pirates that included Kelsey Buonaiuto (Miller Place, N.Y.) and Maddie Harris (Ocala, Fla.) in the 100-breast B final.
Sophomore Kylene Ronayne (Springfield, Pa.) finished as the runner-up in the 200-free B final with a 1:52.87 mark to lead The Hall in the event while sophomore Emily Barnard (Galloway, N.J.) scored as well.
Courtney Regan (Southbury, Conn.), Cece Henry (St. Charles, Mo.) and Alexa Santis (Ijamsville, Md.) finished in succession in the 400-IM B final, ranking 10th, 11th and 12th overall.
Junior Tessa Lindner (Sun Prairie, Wis.) added a fourth-place effort in the 100-fly B final with a time of 56.53 in the night session.
The SHU women rank fourth with 298.5 points entering the final day. Villanova leads with 688 points.
Competition will conclude from the Nassau Aquatic Center on Saturday, February 27 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.
