Seven Swimmers Qualify for BIG EAST Finals During First Day of Prelims
2/19/2004 5:45:18 PM | Swimming / Diving
Click here for Thursday's complete preliminary results
Click here for Thursday's diving results
Seven different swimmers will perform Thursday night in the BIG EAST Conference Championship finals at the Nassau County Aquatics Center. The Orange had a strong showing during preliminary action on the first day of the meet.
SU will send three Orangemen into the finals of the men's 500-yard freestyle. Junior Josh Scott was fifth during morning prelims with a season-best time of 4:28.88. He will compete in the championship finals against teammate Pat Mugavin, who was seventh with a time of 4:29.55. Sophomore Rob Persico will compete in the consolation finals. He was 11th in the prelims of the 500 free with a time of 4:31.75.
Sophomore Lisa Wittich will try to medal in the women's 500 freestyle. She finished fourth in the prelims with a time of 4:54.21.
In the women's 200-yard individual medley, senior Elyse McDonough was third behind two swimmers from Notre Dame. McDonough clocked a time of 2:03.89. The winner, Katie Carroll, posted a time of 2:01.77, while Irish teammate Lisa Garcia was second with a time of 2:01.86.
Freshman Randi Beaulieu will compete in her first BIG EAST Championship finals race Thursday evening in the women's 50-yard freestyle. Beaulieu's season-best time of 24.04 placed her in a tie for 14th with Virginia Tech's Meagan Cleary.
On the men's side, junior Mike Anstrom finished 13th in the 50 free (20.82) against some very fast competition. The winner was BIG EAST record holder Matt Campbell from Rutgers (19.95). Anstrom was SU's top finisher in this event, going faster than teammates Spencer Raymond (21.03) and Ryan Caponera (21.18).
Representing Syracuse in men's diving was Dewey Schultz, Tony Campagna and Ricky Rodriguez. Schultz was 11th in the three-meter competition with a score of 390.15. Campagna was 16th with a score of 320.95, while Rodriguez tallied a preliminary score of 305.05 points.
The BIG EAST Championship finals begin at 6 p.m. each of the next three nights. The preliminaries start at 10:30 a.m. each day.
