EAST MEADOW, N.Y. -- After the second day of competition at the 2020 BIG EAST Swimming & Diving Championships presented by Jeep, the Villanova women surged to the top of the leaderboard with three gold medal finishes.
With 330 points, the Wildcats hold a sizeable lead over the rest of the pack, as Georgetown sits in second with 266 points, followed by Xavier in third with 201 and Seton Hall in fourth with 172. Providence (106) and Butler (105) sit in fifth and sixth, respectively.
On the men's side four teams have scored at least 230 points, with the Musketeers and Wildcats knotted at 246 points in first place. Seton Hall sits closely behind in third with 237 points, while Georgetown (234) and Providence (112) round out the standings.
In the women's 500-yard freestyle, Nicole Welch (4:49.64) took the gold for the second-consecutive year just .01 seconds off of her mark in 2019. Seton Hall's Julie Stankiewicz claimed the silver at a 4:52.41 mark while the Wildcats earned the bronze with freshman Brenna McLaughlin touching the pad at 4:53.93.
In the 200 IM, Villanova women captured the top three spots, with Kelly Montesi, Rayann Jaryszak and Kaitlin Gravell claiming gold, silver and bronze, respectively. On the men's side, Justin Cucchi earned silver at a mark of 1:47.37, breaking his own school record set back in 2018.
In the fastest event at the BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships, Milly Routledge (22.79) just outstretched Xavier's Emily Conners (22.96) to claim the gold. For the men, Stephen Krecsmar earned the silver at 20.54.
In the men's 3-meter diving, the two-time defending champion in the event, Michael Perra, totaled a score of 568.10 to take home his fifth career gold medal at a BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championship. Wildcat teammate Michael Ackert earned the silver with a personal best dive in the finals with a score of 282.35 and a total of 544.15. Joe Swindal took fourth in the event, scoring 496.20.
The Villanova women claimed the silver in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:33.29. Meanwhile, the men took fourth with a time of 1:22.91.
Day 3 will begin at 10 a.m. ET with the prelims for the 400-IM, 100-fly, 200-free, 100-breast, 100-back and the women's three-meter diving with the finals being run in the fifth session of the championships at 6 p.m. ET on Friday. The finals of the 400-medley relay will close out the session.
