The Seton Hall Pirates men and women’s swimming and diving teams will head to Piscataway on Friday to begin competition at the Rutgers Tri-Meet at Rutgers University.
Seton Hall Athletics
The Pirates, fresh off of a dominant performance against the Providence Friars at the Loyola Quad Meet, where the men and women saw their records improve to 5-1 and 6-0 respectively.
The two-day event will be a test for the Pirates who take on conference rivals Georgetown and Villanova, as well as former conference foe Rutgers.
“This weekend will be a really good indicator for both teams,” head coach Ron Farnia said. “I think the women have a huge test going up against Rutgers now in the Big Ten, Big East champion Villanova, and the runner up Georgetown.”
Leading the way for the women is sophomore Melody Bush and junior Gabby Signorelli, who coach Farina expects to deliver quality performances this weekend.
Bush is coming off wins in the 200-free touching the wall in 1:56:68 and 200-back finishing with a time of 2:08:58 last week against Providence. Bush also combined with junior Megan Mallon, sophomore Tessa Lindner and freshmen Kat Carson to win the 200-medley relay recording a time of 1:50:31.
Signorelli, the standout diver, came within six points of the school record for the one-meter board with a season-best score of 286.50. With that score Signorelli earned herself a trip back to the NCAA Zone Diving Championships.
On the men’s side, they will be looking to senior diver Ben Mitchell for success. Mitchell has been nothing short of sensational for the blue and white this season. He was named the Big East Swimming & Diving athlete of the week this week for the second time this season. The reigning conference-champion shattered his own school record from the three-meter board last week against the Friars with a six-dive score of 374.02. Sophomore Alex Pfisterer finished second in the one-meter competition with a score of 286.65 while teammate Eric Davidson’s 269.32 was good for third place behind Pfisterer and Mitchell.
The early success for both teams have not been a surprise to head coach Farina, who says a number of factors have contributed to the team’s success.
“The freshmen we brought in recruiting,” Farina said. “Both teams as a whole have really worked hard and have come together very nicely and support each other. And we have really solid depth in every event which also help.”
The Pirates have had this meet circled on their calendar since the beginning of the season as a mid-season measuring point to see where both teams are compared to some other talented in conference competition.
Coach Farina is looking for consistency from his teams in this two-day event as they will be using it as preparation for the four-day Big East Championships later in the season.
“We are going to put our best line up in, have a little fun racing and competing against some of the conference’s best teams, and see where we are Saturday afternoon,” he said of his expectations.
Following the Rutgers tri-meet, the Pirates swimming and diving will be at the three-day Patriot Invitational beginning on Thursday, Nov 20.
Matt Zeigafuse can be reached at matthew.zeigafuse@student.shu.edu or on twitter @mattzeigafuse
