Big East – Men and Women
- Wednesday, February 20– Saturday, February 23
- Nassau Aquatic Center, East Meadow, New York (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Villanova women (5x) & Seton Hall men (2x) (results)
- Live results / Diving Results
- Live Video
- Championship Central
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – Day two of the 2019 Big East Swimming and Diving Championships brought sunshine and warm temperatures. Villanova women were hot – taking gold in every event on Thursday and extending their team lead. Villanova women tallied 378 points – significantly ahead of Georgetown with 227 points after the last event. On the Men’s side – Georgetown swiped the lead from Villanova with consistent success from their swimmers. At evening end the Hoyas were 27.5 points ahead of the Wildcats with 263 points.
500 Freestyle
The first race was a nail biter with Nicole Welsh (4:49.63) touching the wall a second ahead of Georgetown’s Cristina Barrett (4:50.85). Andrea Fong of Villanova touched for third with a time of 4:54.45. For the men, it was a battle between Georgetown’s Brett Sherman and Michael Wheeler. In the end Sherman out-touched Wheeler for gold by one tenth of a second. Sherman touched at 4:23.63 – followed by Wheeler’s 4:23.75. Seton Hall’s Benjamin La Clair earned the bronze with a time of 4:28.19.
200 Individual Medley
It was all Wildcat in the 200 Individual Medley. Villanova dominated the 200 IM with a sweep of the first five places. Elise Pidutti had a NCAA qualifying time breaking two minutes. She touched the wall with a time of 1:59.73. Rayann Jaryszak and Kelly Montesi battled for the silver medal, separated by a hundredth of a second. Jaryszak won the battle touching in 2:00.23 with Montesi at 2:00.24. For the men – Georgetown’s Drew Carbone defended his 2018 Big East title clocking in at 1:47.05. Wildcat Justin Cucchi followed for the silver in 1:48.73 and Matthew Dyer of Xavier came in at 1:50.45 for the bronze.
50 Yard Freestyle
Villanova’s Taylor Wilson earned the gold medal with a time of 22.87. Xavier’s Emily Conners followed for silver in 23.01 followed by Villanova’s Alexandra Fabbri (23.22) for bronze. On the men’s side – Seton Hall’s Dakota Williams was looking for a “Three-peat”. In the end – it was Dakota Williams with another gold medal – making him a 3 time Big East Champion in this event. Dakota’s time of 20.05 was followed by Hoya Sean Devlin (20.42) and Villanova’s Sam Johanns (20.57) for bronze.
3 Meter Springboard
Villanova junior Bridie Dunn (525.60) took the gold medal with six solid dives in the finals. Perhaps the most impressive performance was from second place finisher Naomi Peng (507.85) from Georgetown. After finishing 6th in the preliminary event – she moved up four places in the finals to take silver. Hoya Riley Fujioka took the bronze with a score of 505.25.
200 Freestyle Relay
Villanova women completed their sweep of Gold by narrowly escaping Xavier in the 200 freestyle relay.
Villanova touched the wall four tenths of a second ahead of the Musketeers. The Wildcats finished with a time of 1:32.26, followed by Xavier at 1:32.67. Seton Hall Pirates earned the bronze medal in a time of 1:35.00. On the men’s side Xavier men raced to a gold by out-touching Seton Hall by less than a second Xavier touched with a time of 1:23.0 and the Pirates followed at 1:23.74. Georgetown Hoyas grabbed third place with a time of 1:22.35.
The third day of competition will begin at 10 a.m. on Friday with preliminary swims for the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and 400 medley relay. Men’s 3-meter springboard diving prelims start approximately at noon. Finals for all events will start at 6 p.m.
Team Standings – Day 2
WOMEN:
1. Villanova 378
2. Georgetown 227
3. Xavier 185
4. Seton Hall 181
5. Providence 93
6. Butler 90
MEN:
1. Georgetown 263
2. Villanova 235.5
3. Xavier 230.5
4. Seton Hall 219
5. Providence 88
About the Author
Gerry Dunn is a contributing writer for SwimSwam. He is a “Diving Dad” and resides in Washington, D.C. Gerry continues to dive competitively and is currently the Chairman of the Master’s program for USA Diving. Want to share your thoughts? E-mail him at [email protected]