WORCESTER, Mass. – It was an outstanding start to the 2019 Northeast-10 Conference Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships for the Bentley University Falcons who captured three gold medals and broke five school records Thursday evening at WPI.
Bentley opened the meet by capturing the 800 free relay for the fourth straight season, breaking the school and championship records in the process with a time of 7:34.90. Senior Brooke Jameson (Bedford/Bedford HS) led off with her leg of 1:54.25 breaking the Falcon 200 free record that had stood since 2012 by 0.46 seconds.
Jameson was followed into the pool by junior Paige MacNeil (Branford, Conn./Branford HS), freshman Lucy Slowe (Millis/Millis HS) and senior Kate Kaduboski (Dedham/Dedham HS). The former Bentley record of 7:36.71 was set in 2017 with Jameson and Kaduboski also a part of that mark.
Not to be outdone, the Bentley men also earned gold in the 800 free relay and broke the school record of 6:51.63 in the process. Freshman Mark Zoda (Nashua, N.H./Bishop Guertin HS), senior Frank Elenio (Ridgefield, N.J./Bergen County Academies), junior Jarod Yoshihara (Irvine, Calif./University HS) and senior Ryan McGeary (Paramus, N.J./Bergen Catholic HS) took first by about eight seconds with a 6:48.95.
In the men's 1,000 freestyle, junior Dan Sausto (Slingerlands, N.Y./Doane Stuart School) broke his own school record by about 12 seconds with a gold medal-winning time of 9:32.18. It was his second career gold medal.
Bentley also received a school record-breaking performance in the women's 1,000 free with senior Melissa Viator (Lubbock, Texas/Lubbock HS) finishing second and improving on the record she set a year ago by about 11 seconds with a 10:36.16. Also in the 1,000, senior Hannah Rauch (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park HS) was fourth (10:36.97) and freshman Emily Sweet (Nashua, N.H./Nashua North HS) followed in seventh (10:48.64).
The three-meter diving prelims were also contested with three Bentley divers, including freshman Jeremy Glick (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor HS) qualifying for the finals.
Bentley is atop of both the men's and women's team standings after the meet's first two events. The women had 104 points for a nine-point lead over Assumption and the men, with 102, are 30 points in front of Southern Connecticut State.
The championships will resume with prelims at 10 am Friday morning.
