Juniors Owen Karl (Rochester, N.Y./Brighton HS) and Sebastian Bury (Bellevue, Wash./Newport HS) each broke a school record Friday night while helping the Bentley University Falcons finish day two of the 2015 Northeast-10 Conference Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships in second place. The meet runs through Sunday at Southern Connecticut State’s Hutchinson Natatorium.
Bentley finished the day with 305 points and will begin day three 14 points back the host team. Le Moyne College is in third with a total of 239.
Karl achieved his second record of the meet by placing third in the 500 yard freestyle, his time of 4:36.72 improving on the standard he set a year ago by 4.01 seconds. In addition to earning him a trip to the podium for a bronze medal, it was an NCAA “B” cut.
The Falcons had three of the top eight in the 500 with sophomore Davis Wilson (Ransom Canyon, Texas/Lubbock HS) seventh in 4:44.74 and junior Kevin Diefenbach (Hamilton, N.J./Steinert HS) eighth in 4:54.92. Wilson’s time put him at number two on Bentley’s all-time list and Diefenbach’s 4:50.50 in the prelims ranked fifth in program history.
Bury, after coming within a hundredth of a second of his own school record in the 50 freestyle in the prelims (21.30), took care of business in the finals with his 21.06 good for fourth place overall. He missed out on a silver medal by just 0.05 seconds.
In the session’s final event, Bury helped Bentley finish fourth in the 400 medley relay, combining with junior Tim Connolly (Dorchester, Mass./Boston Latin Academy), senior Connor Mulvey-Hudson (Ardmore, Pa./ St. Joseph’s Prep) and sophomore Colin McCarthy (Glastonbury, Conn./Northwest Catholic HS) for a 3:30.89. That came within three-tenths of a second of the school record.
Saturday’s action gets underway at 10 am.
Members of the Bentley University women’s swimming and diving team made two trips to the awards podium during day two of the 2015 Northeast-10 Conference Championships with both freshman Emily Niemiec (Meriden, Conn./Francis T. Maloney HS) and sophomore Kaitlin McGahie (Boylston, Mass./Tahanto Reg. HS) claiming bronze medals.
Bentley finished day two of the meet in second place, trailing first-place Assumption College by 88 points and owning a 12-point advantage over third-place College of Saint Rose. The championships, being contested at Southern Connecticut State’s Hutchinson Natatorium, will run through Sunday.
Both women set school records during the finals. Niemiec broke Amanda Le’s one-year-old mark in the 200 yard individual medley by 0.51 seconds with a 2:08.56 while McGahie took possession of the 50 freestyle standard with a 24.48. That was a quarter-of-a-second faster than Jessica Hodsdon’s time in 2012.
Also in the 50, senior Danielle Hellstern (Southbury, Conn./Pomperaug HS) finished eighth with a 25.12 clocking.
The other individual event contested Friday night saw senior Nadine Edwards (Danbury, Conn./Danbury HS) finish fifth in the 500 free with a 511.62.
Bentley was also fifth in the 400 medley relay with McGahie, Niemiec and Edwards combining with junior Meg Pernsteiner (Highland Heights, Ohio/Hawken School) for a 4:03.43.
The finals of the three-meter diving will be contested Saturday night with three Falcons advancing out of the prelims. Senior Paige Wilde (Naugatuck, Conn./Holy Cross HS), who won the one-meter gold Thursday, was the top qualifier with a 407.40. Junior Courtney Stone (Andover, Mass./Andover HS) was third (375.65) and freshman Kayla Ducharme (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford HS) seventh (233.15).
