Bentley University senior Connor Mulvey-Hudson (Ardmore, Pa./St. Joseph’s Prep) swam to victory in the 100 yard breaststroke Saturday night for the Falcons’ first gold medal of the 2015 Northeast-10 Conference Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Southern Connecticut State’s Hutchinson Natatorium.
Mulvey-Hudson edged Saint Rose’s Elie McRae by just two-hundredths of a second to claim gold with his time of 58.18 seconds just 0.01 off the school record. He had qualified with a 58.41, second best behind McRae’s 57.88.
Bentley earned silver in the 200 free relay with juniors Sebastian Bury (Bellevue, Wash./Newport Senior HS) and Tim Connolly (Dorchester, Mass./Boston Latin Acad.) combining with sophomores Liam Bartlett (Syracuse, N.Y./William Nottingham HS) and Davis Wilson (Ransom Canyon, Texas/Lubbock HS) for a school record 1:24.58. That bettered the standard of 1:24.63 set at last year’s championships.
The 200 freestyle was a strong race for the Falcons with junior Owen Karl (Rochester, N.Y./ Brighton HS) earning bronze with a 1:42.93, Wilson fifth (1:44.31) and junior Kevin Diefenbach (Hamilton, N.J./Steinert HS) sixth (1:45.58).
Bentley had four in the finals of the 100 backstroke with Bury the first Falcon to the wall, placing fourth in 52.79 seconds. Connolly followed in fifth (52.83), freshman Chris Vukas (Randolph, N.J./Randolph HS) was seventh (53.67) and senior Josh Witty (Los Gatos, Calif./Los Gatos HS) took eighth (53.87).
Junior Alex Liulakis (Tenafly, N.J./Tenafly HS) was another finalist for the Falcons and he placed seventh in the 100 butterfly (52.31), the fourth best time in program history.
One of Sunday’s events will be the three-meter diving and Bentley will have three of the seven who’ll be competing, including one-meter runner-up Colton Bridge (Tolland, Conn./Tolland HS).
Sunday’s prelims will get underway at 10 am.
Bentley University senior Paige Wilde (Naugatuck, Conn./Holy Cross HS) completed a sweep of diving gold at the Northeast-10 Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships as she added the three-meter title to her collection on Saturday at Southern Connecticut State’s Hutchinson Natatorium.
Wilde, who won the one-meter Thursday night, posted a score of 437.60 to easily best Saint Rose’s Alexa Patnaude, the runner-up with a 383.70. Bentley junior Courtney Stone (Andover, Mass./Andover HS) took third (369.10) after earning a silver in the one-meter, and freshman Kayla Ducharme (Chelmsford, Mass./ Chelmsford HS) was seventh with a 227.25.
Bentley’s strength in the diving is one reason the Falcons will go into Sunday’s final day of competition in second place, a single point up on third-place Le Moyne College. Assumption seems headed towards a second straight title with 634 points, Bentley has 419, Le Moyne 418 and the host team 391.
Freshman Emily Niemiec (Meriden, Conn./Francis T. Maloney HS) finished second in the 400 yard individual medley with her 4:35.03 second on Bentley’s all-time list. She finished about five seconds back of the winner, Assumption rookie Niamh Morgan.
Sophomore Kaitlin McGahie (Boylston, Mass./Tahanto Regional HS) earned her second and third bronze medals of the meet with the first coming with a third-place finish in the 100 breaststroke. Her time of 1:07.47 ranks fifth in program history.
In the final women’s event of the night, McGahie swam the anchor leg as Bentley finished third in the 200 free relay with a 1:38.21. She was preceded into the pool by senior Danielle Hellstern (Southbury, Conn./ Pomperaug HS),freshman Jessica Chen (Darien, Conn./Darien HS) and senior Nadine Edwards (Danbury, Conn./Danbury HS).
Hellstern and Edwards placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 200 freestyle, finishing in 1:55.91 and 1:57.27. Hellstern’s effort put her at number five on Bentley’s all-time list.
Bentley’s other finalist was freshman Anne Warren (Ellicott City, Md./Mt. Hebron HS) with a seventh in the 100 butterfly (1:00.38), good for seventh in program history.
