David Burgess contributed this report.
Men’s Meet
The Pirates of Seton Hall scored an impressive 160-138 road victory over the reigning MAAC champ, the Broncos of Rider. Driving Seton Hall to victory was Zohar Suslovich, the newly arrived freshman from Holon, Israel.
Suslovich won the final individual event of the evening, the 200 IM, swimming a 1:59.50. It was a close finish, with Matthew Zebrowski from the Pirates finishing a close second in 1:59.80, and Evan Paules from Rider coming third in 1:59.94.
The Pirates swept the top three spots in the 200 back, with Suslovich taking the win in 1:56.50, Michael Mattera coming second in 1:57.54, and Keith Carlino, wrapping up the sweep with a 1:58.20 effort. The same three backstrokers also swept the 100 back with Carlino leading the way with a 51.92, Suslovich in 53.26, and Mattera in 54.90.
Not to be outdone, Rider freshman Zach Malloy set pool records for the Broncos in the 200 free and 500 free, swimming a speedy 1:40.25, and a 4:37.53 respectively. Rider head coach Steve Fletcher, has to be pleased with his new arrival. Also providing a strong showing was Rider sophomore Matthan-Matthew Martir, who won the 50 free in 21.22, and the 100 free in 47.29. Seton Hall held tough in the sprints events, however, with TJ Marighi, taking second in the 50 free in 22.22, and Jason Tan swimming a 48.25 to take the runner-up position in the 100 free.
But Seton Hall was more than dominant against the Broncos, with numerous Pirate’s taking individual events. Additional wins went to Matthew Zebrowski took the 200 fly in 1:54.64, Freshman Cody Wimmer won the 1,000 freestyle in 9:47.68, and James Logan took the 200 breast in 2:10.47.
Not to be outdone by the individual swimming, Pirate diving proved too strong in the 3 meter event, with Ben Mitchell scoring a 342.45 – almost breaking the pool record while breaking the 340 point mark for the second time. Mitchell was second in the 1 meter event with a 310.12 showing. Not enough to top Wayco Bailey from Rider, who scored a 315.60.
Rider did take both the beginning, and closing relays with a 1:35.68 win from the ‘A’ relay in the 200 medley relay, and an impressive 3:10.35 from the Bronco ‘B’ team in the 400 free relay.
This loss moves the Rider men to 0-2 so far this season. The Broncos head to Lehigh next, and the Pirates of Seton Hall move to 2-0 in early season competition, and next move on to a quad meet in Baltimore against Drexel, Lafayette, and Loyola Maryland.
Women’s Meet
In lockstep with the men’s swim team, the women of Seton Hall dominated Rider this past Friday. They effectively cruised to a 178 – 111 victory, winning the majority of the evenings events.
The first sweep of the evening was in the 200 yard freestyle. Led by freshman Kylene Ronayne who posted a 1:56.55, the Pirates took second and third with Madison Harris swimming a 2:02.01, and Cora Meehan touching in 2:02.86.
Most impressive for Seton Hall, were the freshman trio of Kat Carson, Kylene Ronayne, and Sydney Simpson. Each collected two victories on the evening. Simpson’s 1:00.06 in the 100 butterfly was the top time in a Pirate sweep of that event, as well as out-touching teammate Melody Bush for the 200 breast win with a 2:28.39. Carson took both sprint freestyle events, winning the 50 free in 24.88, and the 100 free in 55.15.
Rider wasn’t without wins, however. Kaitlyn O’Connor was victorious in the 200 butterfly out-touching Pirate Jessica Lindner with a 2:13.04 to 2:16.19 win. The Bronco’s also took the 200 IM with a 2:16.83 win by freshman Jessica Runk.
The Pirates also dominated the distance freestyle events, with Erica Naumann and Courtney Regan taking first and second respectively in the 1,000 free, and swapping positions in the 500.
Diving was split amongst the teams – Rider sophomore Heather Lonkert took the 3 meter competition with 273.67 points, while Seton Hall junior Gabby Signorelli took the 1 meter event with 258.82 points.
The relays were also split amongst the teams. The Seton Hall ‘A’ relay of Bush, Mallon, Levine, and Carson won the opening 200 medley relay in 1:49.72. Wrapping up the meet, the Rider ‘A’ relay of Oswald, Charniga, Reed, and O’Connor took the 400 free relay in 3:45.06.
The victory for Seton Halls bumps their record to 2 – 0, while Rider falls to 0 – 2. Both teams upcoming meets mirror the men’s schedule, with the Bronco’s heading to Lehigh, and the Pirates off to Maryland for a quad meet against Drexel, Lafayette, and Loyola Maryland.