GENEVA, Ohio—Villanova won five individual events and 15 medals in all over four spirited days of competition to come in second at the BIG EAST Championships which concluded at the SPIRE Institute on Saturday night. Junior diver Michael Ackert (Rye, N.Y.) was named the Men's Most Outstanding Diver and Todd Michael was selected as the Men's Diving Coach of the Year; both accepted their trophies during the awards ceremony which took place immediately following the close of competition. The performances by the Wildcats added up to 685.5 points and a runner-up finish behind Xavier in the team standings.
 
Ackert swept the BIG EAST titles in the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions after being the runner-up in both events to former teammate Michael Perra in each of his first two collegiate seasons. Ackert is now a six-time All-BIG EAST performer overall. He captured the gold medal on the three-meter board on Wednesday night when the conference championships began, then added another championship in the one-meter diving competition on Friday evening. Michael is in his sixth year as a member of the Villanova coaching staff and has now been the Men's Diving Coach of the Year in each of the last four seasons.
 
All five gold medals won by the Wildcats at the BIG EAST Championships were produced by Ackert and freshman swimmer Richard Nolan (Wilton, Conn.), whose energetic post-race interviews embodied a passionate week of performances by the entire Villanova team. Nolan won the first three BIG EAST titles of his collegiate career in successive nights, first capturing the 200 yard individual medley on Thursday evening and then going on to win the 400 yard individual medley on Friday and the 200 yard breaststroke on Saturday night.
 
There were five other individual medal winners for the Wildcats during the course of the meet, including freshman Nolan Danus (Morris Plains, N.J.) winning bronze medals in both the 200 IM and the 200 yard butterfly. Senior Francis Prikasky (Pass Christian, Miss.) was the silver medalist in the 200 breast and won bronze in the 100 yard breaststroke, while sophomore Jake McIntyre (Essex, Vt.) captured a silver medal in the 1650 yard freestyle to kick off competition on Saturday night.
 
Villanova won medals in all five of the relays at the BIG EAST Championships, including a silver medal in the 800 yard freestyle relay and bronze medals in the other four races. A lineup of sophomore Reid Hutcherson (Richmond, Va.), sophomore Kevin Geist (Hilton Head Island, S.C.), freshman Charlie Hinckley (New York, N.Y.) and McIntyre came in second in the 800 free relay on Wednesday night. Earlier that evening the quartet of freshman Ethan Brown (West Hartford, Conn.), senior JJ Strain (Greenwood Village, Colo.), senior Jordan Fetterman (Berkeley, Calif.) and graduate student Christopher Paynter (Hershey, Pa.) won a bronze medal in the 200 yard medley relay.
 
Paynter, Fetterman, junior Jesse Marsh (Kingston, Jamaica) and sophomore Ryan Maher (Phoenixville, Pa.) finished third in the 200 yard freestyle relay on Thursday night, while the lineup of Brown, Prikasky, Fetterman and Hutcherson placed third in the 400 yard medley relay on Friday evening. The final race of the weekend was the men's 400 yard freestyle relay in which Hutcherson, Maher, Fetterman and Paynter tallied a third place finish.