Villanova's 400 Medley Relay Champions (Photo: Kostas Lymperopoulos)
Villanova Women, Xavier Men Lead Heading into Final Day of #BIGEASTswim Championships
Day Three Results | Diving Results | Saturday's Heat Sheets
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - After the third day of competition at the 2020 BIG EAST Swimming & Diving Championships presented by Jeep, the Villanova women hold a slight edge over Georgetown while the Xavier men's squad paces the field with 514.50 points.
With 610 points, the Wildcats will look to close in on their seventh straight BIG EAST Championship on Saturday's final day. Georgetown sits in second with 549 points, while Xavier rounds out the top three at 436. Seton Hall (311), Butler (187) and Providence (185) close out the field at fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
On the men's side, four teams have scored at least 400 points, with the Musketeers holding an advantage over Seton Hall, 514.50 to 456. Georgetown sits in third with 445 points, edging out Villanova's total of 412.5. Providence's 186 points round
s out the standings.
In the women's 400-yard IM, Villanova's Kelly Montesi captured the gold for the second straight year with teammate Kaitlin Gravell earning the silver. Montesi and Gravell turned in times of 4:18.19 and 4:21.39, respectively. Phoebe Slaughter of Georgetown earned the bronze with a time of 4:23.83.
On the men's side, Villanova's Justin Cucchi claimed the title for the second-consecutive year, beating his time from 2019 by two seconds and change with a mark of 3:50.91. Georgetown's Brett Sherman earned the silver while Justin Viotto of Providence outstretched Xavier's Jon Bernard to earn the bronze. Cucchi set an NCAA B-standard qualifying time with his performance.
In the 100 fly, Villanova's Micaela Grassi stood atop the podium once again with a time of 54.87 just ahead of Sierra Cripps of Seton Hall. Butler's Hannah Pugh touched the pad at 55.31 to claim the bronze. On the men's side, Liam Cosgrove, a 2019 gold medalist, claimed the top spot again with a time of 47.80. Xavier took the ensuing three spots as Charles Clark took the silver and Brandon Abboud claimed the bronze with Alex Sironen finishing in fourth.
In the 200 free, Millicent Routledge claimed her second individual gold medal of the meet with a time of 1:47.05. Routledge beat her 2019 time by nearly a second and set an NCAA-B qualifying standard with Friday night's performance. Xavier took spots two, three and four with Emily Conners claiming silver and Abigail Garner taking the bronze. Senior Emily Saugstad finished fourth.
In the men's 200 free, Seton Hall's Ben LaClair touched the pad first to claim the gold at 1:37.45. The Xavier Musketeers put three in the top-four of the final with Andrew Martin, Benjamin Quon and Jared Ritz finishing second, third and fourth, respectively.
In the women's 100 breast, Villanova swept the top three spots with freshman Margaret Kleinsmith taking the gold at a 1:03.11 mark. Rayann Jaryszak captured the silver and freshman Perri Stahl finished out the top three with the bronze medal.
In the men's final, Seton Hall junior Josh Tosoni claimed the gold in the event at a 53.96 time to break the program record and receive an NCAA-B qualifying time. Georgetown's Connor Morikawa and Nathaniel Goldfarb claimed the silver and bronze, respectively.
Separated by a mere .07 seconds, Georgetown's Grace Chen took the gold in the 100 back over Xavier's Brooke Atkins with a time of 55.85. Sally Alrutz of Providence claimed the bronze at 56.01. For the men, Drew Carbone dominated the 100 back from start to finish to break his own program record and set an NCAA-B qualifying standard with a mark of 47.18 to earn the gold. Villanova's Andrew Kelley (48.59) and Xavier's Alex Sironen took silver and bronze, respectively.
In the women's 3-meter diving, Georgetown's Riley Fujioka earned the gold medal with a final score of 574.65. Bridie Dunn of Villanova took home the silver with an overall score of 527.20. Georgetown senior Elizabeth Miller (519.25) closed out the meet capturing the bronze. Fujioka also stood atop the podium in the 1-meter event on Wednesday evening.
The evening's last event saw the Villanova women and the Georgetown men claim the 400 medley relay. The Wildcats cruised to victory, edging Xavier by nearly three seconds, for gold with a time of 3:43.29. The Hoyas claimed the gold with a program record of 3:13.71, four seconds better than the previous mark. Sean Devlin posted a 44.36 split at the anchor leg to ensure a victory for GU.
The final day of competition will begin at the pool at 10 a.m. for the prelims of the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly and men's one-meter diving. In the afternoon, the competition will begin a little earlier than the previous three days with the timed final first heat of the mile swim starting at 3:45 p.m. At 5:35 p.m., the BIG EAST will recognize its senior student-athletes with a short ceremony on the pool deck. Finals of the morning events and mile swim will begin at 6 p.m. The finals of the 400-freestyle relay will close out the 2020 #BIGEASTswim Championships.
For schedules, updates, live results and live coverage links please visit the
BIG EAST Swimming & Diving Championship Central Page on BIGEAST.com
All Championship action will air live on the BIG EAST Digital Network featured on the BIG EAST Conference YouTube Channel, with wall-to-wall coverage that includes all event preliminaries, finals and awards. Meghan Caffrey will be poolside during the finals reporting on all of the action.
Team Rankings - After Day 3
Women
1. Villanova (610 points)
2. Georgetown (549)
3. Xavier (436)
4. Seton Hall (311)
5. Butler (187)
6. Providence (185)
Men
1. Xavier (514.50 points)
2. Seton Hall (456)
3. Georgetown (445)
4. Villanova (412.50)
5. Providence (186)