WORCESTER, Mass. – Junior Paul Homorodean (Milford, Conn./Joseph A. Foran HS), sophomore Mark Zoda (Nashua, N.H./Bishop Guertin HS) and freshman Anthony Vizental (Concord, Calif./Clayton Valley HS) earned gold medals for the Bentley University Falcons Saturday during Day 3 of the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at WPI's Sports and Recreation Center.
Their efforts helped the defending champion Falcons remain at the top of the team standings with a 163-point lead. Bentley will enter Sunday's final day of competition with 577.5 points, with Southern Connecticut State a distant second at 414.5.
Homorodean collected a medal of each color Saturday as he finished first in the 100 yard breaststroke (56.31) and second in the 100 butterfly, with his 49.57 time breaking the school record of 50.06 he set at last year's championships. His time of 22.90 over the first 50 of the 100 fly also broke a school record (23.05 by Mark Gwozdecke in 2016).
Homorodean was also part of the Falcons' 200 medley relay team that earned the bronze in 1:34.26. That quartet also included junior Clayton Bennice (Ballston Spa, N.Y./Ballston Spa HS) and sophomores Zach Papsco (Northport, N.Y./Northport HS) and Oscar Chang (Dix Hils, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills West HS).
Papsco took second in the 100 breast, trailing Homorodean by four-tenths of a second. His time of 26.46 over the first 50 broke Zoda's school record by .03 seconds. In the same event, freshman Tanner Eisenhut (Jamesville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS) was sixth in 58.41.
Zoda swam to victory in the 200 freestyle, finishing in 1:41.76 for his third gold and fifth medal of the meet. Senior Alper Alkaya (Milan, Italy) also competed in the finals of the 200 free, finishing fifth in 1:43.09.
Vizental helped Bentley dominate the 400 individual medley with four of the top six. Vizental and classmate Michael Motisi (Ellington, Conn./Ellington HS) finished 1-2 in 4:02.04 and 4:06.90, respectively. Sophomore Alec Lanza (Hartland, Wisc./Arrowhead HS) was fifth (4:14.98) and grad student Matt Bandy (Manhattan, Kans./Manhattan HS) was sixth (4:17.49).
In the 100 back, Chang was fourth (53.39) and senior Jared Yoshihara (Irvine, Calif./University HS) was fifth (53.87).
Sunday's schedule has the prelims at 10:15 am and the finals at 5:30 pm.
