WORCESTER, Mass. – The Bentley University men's and women's swimming and diving teams got off to a strong start Thursday night during the Northeast-10 Conference Championships at WPI's Sports and Recreation Center with a gold medal, a silver medal, three school records and a championship record.

Leading the way was the women's 800 yard freestyle relay team of junior Kaitlin McGahie (Boylston/Tahanto Reg. HS), sophomore Emily Niemiec (Meriden, Conn./Francis T. Maloney HS) and freshmen Kate Kaduboski (Dedham/Dedham HS) and Brooke Jameson (Bedford/Bedford HS).

They finished first by 1.79 seconds over Southern Connecticut State with their time of 7:40.02 both a school and championship record, as well as an NCAA B cut. The quartet improved on the meet record, set by Southern in 2007, by 0.68 seconds and the school record, set in 2012, by a full seven seconds.

Bentley also broke the school record while finishing second in the men's 800 free relay. Seniors Owen Karl (Rochester, N.Y./Brighton HS) and Kevin Diefenbach (Hamilton, N.J./Steinert HS) combined with junior Davis Wilson (Ransom Canyon, Texas/Lubbock HS) and sophomore Aidan Karam (Norwich, Conn./Norwich Free Academy) for a 6:53.59, a time that bested the school record of 6:54.60 set in 2015.

Kaduboski broke the school record in the 50 backstroke while swimming the opening leg of the 200 medley relay. She reached the wall in 27.64, 0.39 seconds faster than the standard achieved by Carolyn Lewis in 2014. Bentley was fourth in the event (1:49.16) with Kaduboski joined by Niemiec, freshman Melissa Viator (Lubbock, Texas/Lubbock HS) and sophomore  Jess Chen (Darien, Conn./ Darien HS).

Bentley was also fourth in the men's 200 medley with  freshmen Ryan McGeary (Paramus, N.J./ Paramus HS) and Matt Gwozdecke (Bristol, Conn./St. Paul Catholic HS) teaming with senior Sebastian Bury (Bellevue, Wash./Newport Senior HS) and sophomore Christopher Vukas (Randolph, N.J./ Randolph HS) for a 1:36.27.

Following two events on each side, the Bentley women are tied for second with 104 points, 10 back of Assumption, and the Falcon men are also second, with 88 points, 18 behind Southern Connecticut.

The championships will resume Friday morning and will continue through Sunday evening.