WORCESTER, Mass. – Day two of the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships Friday saw the defending champion Bentley University Falcons earn seven medals, including gold in the 200 yard free relay, and remain atop the team standings.
Competing at WPI's Sports and Recreation Center, the Falcons opened the night with the victory in the 200 free relay, finishing in 1:23.29. Junior Paul Homorodean (Milford, Conn./Joseph A. Foran HS) led off and was followed by senior Alper Alkaya (Milan, Italy), junior Clayton Bennice (Ballston Spa, N.Y./Ballston Spa HS) and sophomore Mark Zoda (Nashua, N.H./Bishop Guertin HS).
Zoda also broke the school record and posted an NCAA "B" cut with a time of 20.71 seconds in the prelims of the 50 freestyle. In the finals, he finished second in 20.78 seconds with Homorodean (20.96) following in third.
Bentley dominated the 200 individual medley with four of the top six finishers. Freshman Anthony Vizental (Concord, Calif./Clayton Valley HS) took second in 1:52.13, and classmate Tanner Eisenhut (Jamesville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS) earned the bronze with a 1:53.36. Sophomore Zach Papsco (Northport, N.Y./Northport HS) followed in fourth (1:54.84) and sophomore Alec Lanza (Hartland, Wisc./Arrowhead HS) was sixth (1:56.70).
The Falcons' second school record of the night came in the 400 medley relay with Bentley taking second in 3:24.09, 0.27 seconds faster than the standard achieved at last year's championships. Sophomore Oscar Chang (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills West HS) swam the opening leg and was followed by Papsco, Homorodean and Zoda.
Senior Daniel Sausto (Slingerlands, N.Y./The Doane Stuart School) captured silver in the 500 free, finishing in 4:42.69.
Bentley had three of the top six in the one-meter diving with sophomore Jeremy Glick (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor HS) leading the Falcons with a fourth place finish (375.40). Classmate Owen Busser (Chelmsford/Chelmsford HS) was fifth (307.60) and sophomore Connor Long (Hackessin, Del./Sanford School) was sixth (301.80).
Following two days of competition, Bentley is at the top of the team leaderboard with 361.5 points. The Falcons are 94 in front of Southern Connecticut State and 175.5 ahead of third-place Le Moyne.ww
The championships continue on Saturday with prelims at 10:15 am and finals at 6 pm.
