WORCESTER, Mass.—Senior Frank Elenio (Ridgefield, N.J./Bergen County Academies) and freshman Mark Zoda (Nashua, N.H./Bishop Guertin HS) both won gold medals while helping the Bentley University Falcons extend their lead in the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships to 153.5 points Saturday during Day 3 of the championships at WPI.
Bentley will enter Sunday's final day with 742 points as they look to capture their second team title in three years. Southern Connecticut State is a distant second with 588.5. The Falcon lead entering Saturday's action stood at 90.5 points.
Elenio's second individual gold of the championships came in the 400 yard individual medley with his NCAA "B" cut time of 4:00.27 breaking the school record of 4:04.51 he set in 2018. Elenio outswam junior teammate Dan Sausto (Slingerlands, N.Y./Doane Stuart School) for the title with Sausto taking the silver with a 4:06.03. Matt Bandy (Manhattan, Kans./Manhattan HS), also a Bentley junior, finished sixth in 4:15.09.
Zoda and senior Ryan McGeary (Paramus, N.J./Bergen Catholic HS) went 1-2 in the 200 yard freestyle. Zoda finished in 1:41.53 and 0.16 seconds in front of his six-foot-eight teammate. Also in the 100 free, junior Alper Alkaya (Milan, Italy) was seventh (1:44.09) and sophomore Clayton Bennice (Ballston Spa, N.Y./Ballston Spa HS) was eighth (1:44.16).
Freshman Zac Papsco (Northport, N.Y./Northport HS) broke the school record, set earlier in the day by sophomore Paul Homorodean (Milford, Conn./Joseph A. Foran HS), while finishing second in the 100 breaststroke. Papsco finished in 56.90 to remove the mark of 57.57 that Homorodean had set in the prelims and had owned possession of for a matter of hours. Homorodean actually beat that time while placing fourth (57.47) and the Falcons also had the sixth place finisher in freshman Alex Lanza (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead HS) (58.79).
Homorodean also broke the Bentley 50 butterfly record in the prelims as he qualified in 50.06 seconds, bettering the mark he set last year of 50.77, and took fourth in the finals with a 50.38. Papsco took seventh in the fly with his time 51.26.
Bentley's fifth record of the day came while earning bronze in the 200 medley relay. Freshman Ellis Sartorio (Mountainside, N.J./Academy for Information Technology) swam the opening leg and was followed by Papsco, Elenio and Zoda. They posted a clocking of 1:34.04, improving on the record set in December by seven-tenths of a second.
Coach Mary Kay Samko's team had four of the top eight in the one-meter diving. Freshman Jeremy Glick (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor HS) earned the bronze (327.15), classmate Owen Busser (Chelmsford/ Chelmsford HS) took fourth (308.10), sophomore Sean Parisi (Billerica/Central Catholic HS) was seventh (272.10) and sophomore Connor Long (Hackessin, Del./Sanford School) eighth (264.05).
In the 100 back, Sartorio's 53.37 was good for fifth place and freshman Oscar Chang (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills West HS) was seventh with a 53.96.
Sunday's action will get underway at 10:15 am.
