WALTHAM, Mass. – Following a third straight undefeated dual record, the Bentley University Falcons captured the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, which concluded Sunday night at WPI.
Following a weekend that included nine gold medals and 16 school record-breaking performances, coach Mary Kay Samko's team finished with 993 points. Runner-up Southern Connecticut, with 890.5 points, was more than 100 points back and Pace, with 511, was a distant third in the seven-team meet.
Junior Dan Sausto (Slingerlands, N.Y./Doane Stuart School) was selected as the Northeast-10 Swimmer of the Meet earning the gold in the championship's two longest races, the 1000 yard freestyle on Thursday and the 1650 free on Sunday. His 15:57.48 in the 1650 was an NCAA "B" cut and broke the school record he set while capturing the gold two years ago, 16:06.64.
That was the first of three gold medals for the Falcons on Sunday. Freshman Mark Zoda (Nashua, N.H./ Bishop Guertin HS) captured the 100 freestyle a day after swimming to victory in the 200 free. Zoda twice broke the school record in the 100, posting a time of 46.08 seconds in the preliminaries and 45.83 in the finals.
The meet concluded with Bentley easily capturing gold in the 400 free relay with a member of each combining for a school record time of 3:04.44, 1.52 seconds faster than the former standard set in 2017. Sophomore Paul Homorodean (Milford, Conn./Joseph A. Foran HS) was followed into the pool by junior Alper Alkaya (Milan, Italy), Zoda and senior Ryan McGeary (Paramus, N.J./Bergen Catholic HS).
Earning bronze medals for the Falcons on the meet's final day were junior Jarod Yoshihara (Irvine, Calif./ University HS) in the 200 backstroke (1:53.27), Alkaya in the 100 free (46.64) and senior Frank Elenio (Ridgefield, N.J./Bergen County Academies) in the 200 butterfly (1:51.24).
The Falcons' only fourth was achieved by freshman Alec Lanza (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead HS) with a time of 2:06.94 in the 200 breaststroke. In the same event, junior Matt Bandy (Manhattan, Kans./Manhattan HS) was sixth (2:08.83), freshman Burke Sansiviero (Huntington, N.Y./St. Anthony's HS) was seventh (2:09.57) and McGeary was eighth (2:09.69).
Sophomore Tanner Fales (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast HS) took eighth in the 1650 free and freshman Andrew D'Annolfo (Chestnut Hill/Newton South) had the same finish in the 200 butterfly (2:00.10).
Bentley's top point scorers in the meet were Sausto with 57, Elenio with 56 and Zoda with 55.
