Gold for Wessels & Connolly During Day Two of NEISDA Championships

Day two of the New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Championships saw a pair of Bentley University swimmers capture gold medals and school records broken five times Saturday at Roger Williams University.

Bentley was led in the evening session by freshman Matt Wessels (Epsom, N.H./Bishop Brady HS), who captured his second gold of the meet, and junior Willie Connolly (Washington, Conn./Shepaug Valley Reg. HS), who claimed his first.

Wessels, the champion in the 200 yard individual medley Friday night, touched first in the 400 IM, with his time of 4:17.66 giving him a margin of victory of 3.03 seconds. Connolly earned his gold in the 100 backstroke, posting a winning time of 53.07 seconds.

School records on Saturday night were set during a trio of silver medal-winning performances, including one by the 200 medley relay team of Connolly, junior Sam Laden (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire HS), senior James Cote (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip HS) and sophomore Egen Ouellette (West Hartford, Conn./Concard HS). That foursome posted a time of 1:37.02, improving on the record they set earlier Saturday in the trials by 1.21 seconds.

The other school records Saturday night were achieved by Laden and Ouellette. Laden improved his own school record by 0.24 seconds in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 58.33. Ouellette swam the first 200 of the 800 free relay in 1:45.06, reducing the school record by two-hundredths of a second. He combined with freshman Erik Stricker (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central HS) and sophomores Matt Cesaro (Avon, Conn./Avon HS) and Chris Horan (Hanover/Boston College HS) for a time of 7:15.65, good for second place.

Earlier Saturday, Ouellette finished second in the 1000 free, with his time of 10:01.01 bettering his own school record by 7.41 seconds. During the first two days of the meet, he’s broken three individual school records as well as helping to do the same in the 200 medley relay twice.

Bentley also received a fourth-place finish from Cesaro in the 200 freestyle on Saturday (1:49.20).

As a team, the four-time defending champion Falcons stand second amongst 13 teams with a score of 352 points. Keene State tops the standards with 447 points.

The meet will continue on Sunday with trials at 10 am and finals at 5 pm.

Team Standings:
1. Keene State 447;
2. Bentley 352;
3. Roger Williams 233;
4. Norwich 213;
5. St. Michael’s 192;
6. UMass-Dartmouth 181;
7. Colby Sawyer 85;
8. Univ. of New England 69;
9. Elms 56;
10. Bridgewater State 54;
11. Gordon 37;
12. St. Joseph’s, Maine, 4;
13. Regis 1.