Full, live meet results available here.
The new-look Big East began its 2015 Championship meet on Wednesday in Ithaca, New York, and the Villanova Wildcats women and Xavier men have stamped their name on the conference meet early.
Women’s Session
The Villanova women started the day off with a dominant win in the 800 free relay, swimming a 7:18.18, with the team of Katrin Heider (1:48.30), Jessica Randolph (1:49.38), Sara Jurek (1:49.09), and Emily Mayo (1:51.41) combined to place 9 seconds ahead of the runners-up from Georgetown (7:27.56) and third-place Xavier (7:31.86).
The middle distance and distance freestyles are Villanova’s specialty, so that win in the 800 free relay won’t shock anybody, but the Wildcats also swam well to sweep day 1’s events by winning the 200 medley in 1:42.06 – beating out top-seeded Xavier (1:42.34). Xavier opened up a lead on the breaststroke leg, but a 22.47 anchor from Villanova’s Kaisla Kollanus brought the Wildcats to a come-from-behind win.
Seton Hall took 3rd in 1:44.46.
Men’s Session
The men’s meet played out to be a much more competitive one early on, as the Xavier men swam to a winning time of 6:41.32 – running from third to first thanks to a 1:39.32 anchor from William Oswald.
Georgetown took 2nd in 6:42.99 and Seton Hall was 3rd in 6:43.09 – but they both used their biggest guns early on. For Georgetown, that was a 1:39.29 leadoff from Daniel Ross, and for Seton Hall it was a 1:39.24 leadoff from freshman Noah Yanchulis.
Yanchulis’ best time when he got to Seton Hall was just a 1:43.20, meaning he’s dropped an impressive four seconds in just one season.
That was as tight as things would get on the first day, though, as Xavier dominated the 200 medley relay by a relatively large two second margin, swimming a 1:29.31 for the win. Xavier’s relay included Erik Biernat (23.30), Clark Carter (24.87), Armando Moss (21.39), and Luke Johanns (19.75), with the breaststroke and freestyle splits being the ones that really stand out.
In second place was Georgetown in 1:31.2, followed by Seton Hall in 3rd in 1:31.61.
Seton Hall dominated the men’s 1-meter diving on the first day to put them into the lead, whereas Xavier didn’t score at all on the boards, but it’s clear that this is Xavier’s meet to lose.
Team Scores
Women
1. Villanova – 80
2. Xavier – 66
3. Georgetown – 64
4. Seton Hall – 62
5. Providence College – 54
5. Butler – 54
Men
1. Seton Hall – 115
2. Georgetown – 99
3. Xavier – 80
4. Villanova – 60
5. Providence College – 56
