Mike Walsh
Mike Walsh

Walsh Completes Sweep of NE-10 Diving; Falcons 3rd after Day 2 of NE-10 Championships

WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Bentley University senior Mike Walsh (South Salem, N.Y./John Jay HS) completed a sweep of the diving events, breaking his own school record in the procress, during the second day of competition at the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Association Championships at Southern Connecticut State University Friday.

Walsh, who captured the three-meter event on Thursday, amassed a winning effort of 440.35 off the one-meter board, winning by more than 100 points over runner-up Ryan Butler of Saint Rose.  His score was exactly five points higher than the former school record which he set in January 2011.

His efforts have helped Bentley amass 406 points in the championships, putting the Falcons in third place heading into Saturday's final day of competition. Defending champion Southern Connecticut State has 582 points and an 84-point lead over the second-place team, The College of Saint Rose.  A total of seven institutions are competing.

Bentley had a solid night in the 100 yard backstroke with Falcons taking fourth, fifth and sixth places. Junior George Go (Manila, Philippines) led his teammates to the wall in 54.91 seconds, senior Patrick Ryan (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Reg. HS) followed in 55.58 and freshman Josh Witty (Los Gatos, Calif./Los Gatos HS) touched three-hundredths of a second later.

Go was also sixth in the 100 butterfly (53.23 seconds) and a member of the Falcons' 200 medley relay team that was fifth in 1:37.16.

Junior Tyler Champagne (Orange, Conn./Amity Reg. HS) had Bentley's other sixth, as he posted a time of 1:47.47 in the 200 free.

Sophomore Phillip Chan (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier HS) and senior Erik Stricker (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central HS) both had eighth-place finishes, in the 100 breaststroke and 400 individual medley, respectively.