The Seton Hall swimming and diving teams sent four Pirates to the USA Swimming AT&T Winter National Championships, a three-day event, at Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta starting Dec. 1.
For the men's team, junior Ryan O'Shaughnessy and sophomore Richard Dunham swam in hopes of achieving qualifying times for the 2012 Olympic Trials.
O'Shaughnessy competed in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley, in which he posted a mark of 2 minutes, 12.91 seconds. His individual medley finish converts to 1:53.90 in a 25-yard setting, just off his personal best time of 1:51.11 at last year's Big East Championships.
During the last day of competition, O'Shaughnessy also raced in the 200 breaststroke preliminaries, posting a time of 2:37.69, converting to 2:15.30 in a 25-yard setting.
Dunham swam one race, the 50 freestyle, where he clocked in at 24.30 seconds.
"The guys realized that they have a little bit of work to do," head coach Ron Farina said. "This was a motivating meet for them."
Sophomore Jane Ehert opened up the competition for the Seton Hall's women's team on day two of the Winter National Championships.
Ehert posted a mark of 5:06.36 on the 50 butterfly, less than five seconds off her qualifying time posted in February 2011.
"It was such a big meet, and it was great to race against some of the fastest people in the country; it's really honorable," Ehert said. "My goal was making Olympic Trials, so I went into the meet trying to do my best, although a middle of the season long course is hard to do. I toughed it out, and our next long course is sectionals after the Big East meet, and I will try to qualify then."
On the final day of competition, Ehert swam in the 200 butterfly, where she was just 3.08 seconds off of an Olympic qualification with a time of 2:19.57.
"I was very pleased," Farina added. "She performed where she has been all year."
Sophomore Kerrie Kolackovsky also competed for the Hall in the 200 breastsroke she finished with a time of 2:41.04.
"This meet gave us some ideas on things to work on: getting our legs stronger, and getting back to work in time to start the second phase, and to swim fast for Big East," Farina said
The Pirates return to the pool Jan. 17 in a home meet against Villanova.
Stephanie Vedral can be reached at stephanie.vedral@student.shu.edu.
