WORCESTER, Mass. – Bentley University senior All-America Nicola Mancini (Falmouth, Maine/ Falmouth HS) earned her fifth career Northeast-10 Conference gold medal Friday night as she captured the one-meter diving during the conference swimming and diving championships at WPI's Sports and Recreation Center.
Mancini, with a score of 426.30, won by an impressive 41.35 points over runner-up Haley Boland of Southern Connecticut State. Three of her dives during the evening portion of the competition produced at least 46 points, including a 50.40 on her penultimate dive of the night.
Mancini was also the NE-10 one-meter champion in 2013 and 2014 before sitting out last season with an injury.
Also in the diving, Bentley senior Courtney Stone (Andover/Andover HS) placed fourth with a 366.94, missing a trip to the podium by only 2.30 points.
In the 200 yard individual medley, sophomore Emily Niemiec (Meriden, Conn./Francis T. Maloney HS) broke her own school record, set at last year's championships, while finishing second in 2:06.50, 0.47 seconds off the winning pace. It improved on the mark she set in 2015 by 2.06 seconds and was an NCAA B cut.
Senior Meg Pernsteiner (Highland Heights, Ohio/Hawken School) also reached the A finals of the 200 IM. She finished eighth overall with a 2:14.18.
Junior Kaitlin McGahie (Boylston/Tahanto Reg. HS) earned bronze in the 50 freestyle with her finals time of 24.40 just a hundredth of a second off the school record of 24.39 she achieved in the prelims. She owned the former record of 24.48, set during the 2015 championships.
Freshman Brooke Jameson (Bedford/Bedford HS) placed fifth in the 500 free (5:10.31) and the Falcons' 400 medley relay team was fourth (3:58.83). Freshman Kate Kaduboski (Dedham/Dedham HS) led off and was followed into the pool by Niemiec, freshman Melissa Viator (Lubbock,Texas/Lubbock HS) and McGahie.
Bentley finished day two of the four-day championships in third place among nine teams with its total of 263.5 points bettered only by Southern Connecticut State (303) and Assumption College (293.5).
The championships will resume Saturday morning at 10:15 am.
