Swimming & Diving Opens BIG EAST Championships

Feb. 18, 2015

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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The 2015 BIG EAST Swimming & Diving Championships presented by New York Life begin today from the Ithaca, N.Y. with three scheduled events. In the pool, both the men and women will participate in the 800-freestyle relay as well as the 200-medley relay while male divers will take to the one-meter board.

For the first time ever, the championships will be shown on the BIG EAST Digital Network which can be accessed online or on mobile devices through FOX Sports Go.

Unlike last year where The Hall entered the swimming portion of the championships with a substantial lead after sweeping all four diving titles in a separate competition, all teams will enter the four-day meet on level pegging with diving integrated into the schedule of events.

Senior Ben Mitchell (Milford, Pa.) is the favorite to add to a collection of awards that already includes two gold medals from last season's BIG EAST championships, having been the class of the conference from the board all season. Mitchell earned a spot atop the podium with a score of 535.50 from one-meter last season, finishing as the only men's entrant to top the 500-point mark in the event,.

Teammates Eric Davidson (Overland Park, Kan.) and Alex Pfisterer (Mohnton, Pa.) added second and fourth-place finishes respectively and the trio will look to continue their dominance in an effort to jumpstart a men's squad with its eyes squarely on capturing the program's first-ever team championship.

Seton Hall could also make program history on Wednesday night with its first-ever relay title. The Pirates own the top-seed in the 800-free relay, a time of 6:54.65 that was turned in by the team of Noah Yanchulis (Arnold, Md.), Tim Bosse (New Windsor, N.Y.), Jason Tan (Bridgewater, N.J.) and Cooper Lindsley (Lancaster, Pa.) at the Patriot Invitational in the fall.

Defending men's champions Xavier holds the second seed (6:54.85) while a Georgetown side that SHU defeated head-to-head earlier this season is seeded third, within one second of The Hall's time as well (6:55.59).

Keith Carlino (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.), Sean Sali (Bridgewater, N.J.), Zach DeLillo (Sinking Spring, Pa.) and Bosse combined to post the team's top 200-medley relay time of the year at the Patriot Invitational as well, coming in at 1:34.38. Their effort was fourth-fastest in the BIG EAST this year, but stands over six seconds ahead of fifth-seeded Providence (1:40.95) and within striking distance of frontrunners Xavier (1:32.01).

On the women's side, SHU will be looking for a repeat performance from the opening day of the 2014 championships, when the squad delivered school record times in each of the relay events to be held on Wednesday.

Seton Hall collected third-place points with each time and returns four of the six swimmers responsible for contributing to the record-breaking marks.

Sophomore Melody Bush (Guelph, Ontario) was present on both teams, combining with fellow returnees Cora Meehan (Noblesville, Ind.) and Rae Congdon (Ottawa, Ontario) on an 800-free team that set a new standard at 7:35.21.

This season, Seton Hall enters the meet ranked fourth out of six squads as Meehan teamed with a trio of freshmen in Courtney Regan (Southbury, Conn.), Kylene Ronayne (Springfield, Pa.) and Sam Shirtliff (Camp Hill, Pa.) to register a season-best time of 7:47.58 at the Patriot Invitational.

The Hall is also seeded fourth in the 200-medley relay but holds a top time that is just over two seconds off Xavier's conference-leading pace (1:44.32).

Bush, Megan Mallon (Glen Mills, Pa.), Kat Carson (Katy, Texas) and Sydney Simpson (Tallahassee, Fla.) clocked in at 1:46.43 in the fall - a time that was also within two ticks of the program record that Mallon and Bush helped establish last February (1:44.60).

Wednesday's events serve as an introduction to a championship atmosphere that will be present over the next four days as the Pirates aim to improve on their haul seven gold medals from last season.

Competition is slated to begin at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Follow the action with live results online or throught he Meet Mobile app. @SHUSwimDive will also have updates on Twitter.

In advance of the day's action, here is a look at where Seton Hall stacks up in each swimming event on the docket:

800-YARD FREESTYLE RELAY
MEN
School Record: Webster, Benson, D'Errico, Acheson - 6:44.54 (2010)

2015 Championship Seeds:

1. SETON HALL- 6:54.65 (Yanchulis, Bosse, Tan, Lindsley, Patriot Invitational 11/21/14)

2. Xavier - 6:54.85

3. Georgetown - 6:55.59

4. Villanova - 6:57.11

5. Providence - 7:08.89

WOMEN
School Record: Kolackovsky, Bush, Meehan, Congdon - 7:35.21 (2014)

2015 Championship Seeds:

1. Villanova - 7:23.76

2. Georgetown - 7:33.67

3. Xavier - 7:44.47