WORCESTER, Mass. – Four members of the Bentley University men's swimming and diving team made trips to the awards podium Sunday as the 2018 Northeast-10 Conference Championships drew to a close at WPI's Sports and Recreation Center with the Falcons finishing in the top two for the seventh straight season.
Southern Connecticut State dethroned the defending champion Falcons for the team title, 954-701, with Le Moyne College following in third (565).
Leading the Falcons during Sunday's action were sophomore Matt Bandy (Manhattan, Kans./ Manhattan HS) and junior Frank Elenio (Ridgefield N.J./Bergen County Academies), each of whom won a silver medal.
Elenio broke a school record for the fifth time during the championships, this time improving on the mark in the 200 butterfly he set last year by one-hundredth of a second with a 1:51.77. That put him about three seconds off the winning pace of Southern Connecticut's Leo Laporte.
Bandy's silver came in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:09.94, 1.35 seconds back of Le Moyne's Michael Dierolf. Sam Trozenski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon HS), also a sophomore, was also a finalist in the event with his 2:14.00 good for seventh place.
Earning bronze for the Falcons on Sunday were a pair of sophomores, Jared Yoshihara (Irvine, Calif./University HS) and Alper Alkaya (Milan, Italy). Yoshihara swam the 200 backstroke in 1:52.78 and Alkaya turned in a 46.73 in the 100 free. Also in the 100 free, senior Chris Vukas (Randolph, N.J./ Randolph HS) was seventh (47.09) and freshman Clayton Bennice (Ballston Spa, N.Y./Ballston Spa HS) eighth (48.00).
Senior Juan Quiroga (Bogota, Colombia) took fourth in the three-meter diving (282.09) and freshman Sean Parisi (Billerica/Central Catholic HS) followed in fifth (222.57).
In the 1650 free, junior Ryan McGeary (Paramus, N.J./Bergen Catholic HS) finished in fourth place (16:26.37) and sophomore Timothy Fay (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown HS) was seventh (16:55.34).
During the championships, Bentley totaled 13 medals with seven silver and six bronze, and broke school records nine times. Elenio (4 silver) and McGeary (3 silver, 1 bronze) led the team in medals and the team's top scorers were Elenio (51) and McGeary (48).
