It was a strong opening day for the Bentley University men’s swimming and diving team during the opening day of the Northeast-10 Conference Championships Thursday night as three trips to the medal stand and one school record put the Falcons at the top of the team leaderboard.
Competing at Southern Connecticut State’s Hutchison Natatorium, Bentley amassed 138 points in the meet’s first three events and leads the host team by 14 points and Le Moyne College by 20.
In the lone individual event contested Thursday, Bentley junior Colton Bridge (Tolland, Conn./ Tolland HS) finished second in the one-meter diving for the second straight year, registering scores of 410.25 in the prelims and 414.40 in the finals.
Bentley finished the night by earning silver in the 800 yard free relay with the time of 6:54.60 breaking the school record set last year by 2.23 seconds. Junior Owen Karl (Rochester, N.Y./Brighton HS) led off and was followed into the pool by freshmen Jon Boains (Unionville, Conn./Farmington HS) and Aiden Karam (Norwich, Conn./Norwich Free Academy).
Sophomore Davis Wilson (Ransom Canyon, Texas/Lubbock HS) closed for the Falcons and he reduced the Falcons’ deficit to Southern Connecticut from 3.5 seconds to 1.1.
In the other relay, seniors Josh Witty (Los Gatos, Calif./Los Gatos HS) and Connor Mulvey-Hudson (Ardmore, Pa./St. Joseph’s Prep) combined with sophomore Colin McCarthy (Glastonbury, Conn./Northwest Catholic HS) and junior Sebastian Bury (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) to finish third in the 200 medley relay in 1:35.40.
The four-day championship will resume at 10 am Friday.
It was a 1-2 showing for Bentley University divers Paige Wilde (Naugatuck, Conn./Holy Cross HS) and Courtney Stone (Andover, Mass./Andover HS) in the one meter competition during the opening night of the 2015 Northeast-10 Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday at Southern Connecticut State’s Hutchison Natatorium.
Wilde, a senior who had placed second in the one-meter in 2012, earned her first career gold with a score of 404.60 points. It’s the third straight year that Bentley has taken first in the event with Wilde following two-time champion Nicola Mancini, who is red-shirting this season due to injury. Stone, a junior, finished second by a margin of 10.85 points with a 364.50.
Wilde and Stone were also 1-2 in the prelims with scores of 412.70 and 366.60, respectively.
Also scoring for Bentley in the one-meter was freshman Kayla Ducharme (Chelmsford, Mass./ Chelmsford HS), who was sixth with a 304.45.
The opening night also saw Bentley’s 800 yard free relay team make a trip to the podium as the quartet of senior Danielle Hellstern (Southbury, Conn./Pomperaug HS), freshmen Jessica Chen (Darien, Conn./Darien HS) and Emily Niemiec (Meriden, Conn./Francis T. Maloney HS), and senior Nadine Edwards (Danbury, Conn./ Danbury HS) finished third with a 7:47.77.
Edwards made the third place finish possible as she made up significant ground by swimming the final leg in 1:55.26.
In the 200 medley relay, Bentley finished fourth with Niemiec, sophomore Kaitlin McGahie (Boylston, Mass./Tahanto Reg. HS), junior Melissa Clauss (Oakland, N.J./Bergen County Academies) and Chen posting a time of 1:50.12. Niemiec swam the opening 50 backstroke in 28.07, missing the school record by only four-hundredths of a second.
Bentley finished the opening day in first place with 130 points, just one more than The College of Saint Rose, with defending champion and pre-championship favorite Assumption third with 112.
