NEW HAVEN, Conn. – It was a record-setting day for the Bentley University men's swimming and diving team with six being broken during the final day of the 2015 Northeast-10 Conference Championships Sunday at Southern Connecticut State's Hutchinson Natatorium.
Bentley had just two trips to the medal platform Sunday, but after making seven earlier in the championships, the Falcons finished in second place with 842 points. Southern Connecticut captured the team title for the 12th time in 13 years, with their score 895. A total of seven teams competed in the championships.
Bentley's highest finish of day four came in the meet's final event, the 400 yard 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) to place second with a 3:08.06. Earlier in the meet, that same quartet also claimed silver in the 200 free relay.
Freshman Aiden Karam (Norwich, Conn./Norwich Free Acad.) swam to a third-place finish in the lengthy 1650 free, setting two school records in the process. His time of 16:35.11 struck Egen Ouellette's 16:48.22 in 2009 from the record book, and he completed the first 1000 in 9:57.35, bettering another mark that had belonged to Ouellette.
Bury twice broke his own school record while finishing fourth in the 100 free. He posted a 46.86 in the prelims and came back to place fourth in the finals with a 46.52. Also in the 100, Wilson was seventh (47.66) and Bartlett followed in eighth (48.03).
Senior Connor Mulvey-Hudson (Ardmore, Pa./St. Joseph's Prep), the NE-10 champion in the 100 breaststroke, finished his career in record-breaking fashion, posting a 2:06.90 in the 200 breast to place fourth overall and better a mark held by Sam Laden since 2009 by 0.89 seconds. Sophomore Dennis Witol (Bowie, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt HS) took seventh in the 200 breast, finishing in 2:11.76.
Bentley had four finalists in the 200 backstroke and they finished consecutively. Connolly was fifth in 1:55.23 after breaking his own school record with a 1:54.42 in the prelims. He was followed by senior Josh Witty (Los Gatos, Calif./Los Gatos HS) (1:55.51), freshman Chris Vukas (Randolph, N.J./Randolph HS) (1:59.27) and sophomore Matt Ahlmeyer (Morris Plains, N.J./Morristown HS) (2:02.72).
In the three-meter diving, junior Colton Bridge (Tolland, Conn./Tolland HS) achieved a fourth-place finish with a 380.25, but the three-time silver medalist came up a point shy of making a return trip to the podium. Sophomore Nick Cilia (Brentwood, N.H./Exeter HS), with a 284.70, was sixth and senior Ryan Shanahan (Duxbury, Mass./Catholic Memorial HS) was seventh (197.35).
Bentley's other finalist was junior Alex Liulakis (Tenafly, N.J./Tenafly HS) with a 1:56.59 in the 200 butterfly.
During the championships, a dozen school records were set in ten events and Bentley totaled nine medals (gold by Mulvey-Hudson, four silver and four bronze).
