Kylene Ronayne Picks UP BIG EAST Weekly Award
1/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
NEW YORK - Following a standout performance in which the Pirates routed visiting Iona in their return to the pool last week, Seton Hall freshman Kylene Ronayne (Springfield, Pa.) has been named BIG EAST Women's Swimming & Diving Athlete of the Week it was announced by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon.
Ronayne picks up the first weekly honor of her career as well as the first for The Hall on the women's side in 2014-15. On the men's side, senior Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) and freshman Noah Yanchulis (Arnold, Md.) combined to earn three weekly awards in the fall.
Last Wednesday, Ronayne was at the forefront of what was a dominant SHU performance against the Gaels; spearheading a 167-117 victory for the women that featured 14 first-place efforts.
On an evening in which the two Seton Hall squads collected 30 wins in 32 events, Ronayne was the lone competitor to finish with three individual victories. Her first came in the 200-free where she moved out in front on the second leg and went on to post a time of 1:57.13.
The freshman came back to coast to the top finish in the 500-free, besting teammate and runner-up Erica Naumann (Middletown, Conn.) by more than eight seconds after reaching the wall in 5:12.04. The newcomer capped her individual program with a wire-to-wire victory in the 200-IM, out-pacing the field with a 2:13.61 mark.
To put an exclamation point on the outing, Ronayne teamed with Sam Shirtliff (Camp Hill, Pa.), Gabi Levine (Garwood, N.J.) and Melody Bush (Guelph, Ontario) to turn in the fastest 400-free relay time of the night (3:42.97).
The meet against Iona was just the Pirates' second home appearance of the season and Ronayne has now won all five of her individual events at Arthur E. Imperatore Natatorium after recording two wins in a similarly dominant 177-103 triumph over Providence in November.
In all, the freshman is now up to eight first-place finishes as an individual in her first season in blue & white.
Ronayne and the rest of the Pirates will look to keep rolling during a busy slate set for the upcoming weekend. SHU will open by hosting Marist on Saturday, January 24 at 1 p.m. in a meet that will also serve as Senior Day and will then travel to Storrs to take on Connecticut the following day at Noon.
