Dan Sausto
Dan Sausto

Bentley Extends Lead at NE10’s After Earning Four Medals Saturday

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Bentley University men's swimming and diving team will carry a 55-point lead into Sunday's final day of competition in the Northeast-10 Conference Championships as it seeks its first conference title since 2010.

After making four trips to the medal platform Saturday and breaking school records in three events, Bentley has 590 total points following the third of four days of action at Southern Connecticut State's Hutchinson Natatorium. The host team is second at 535 and Le Moyne stands in third with 411.

Led by freshman Dan Sausto (Slingerlands, N.Y./Doane Stuart School), Bentley excelled in the 400 yard individual medley with four of the top nine finishers. Sausto took second and twice broke the school record (4:09.32) of senior Dennis Witol (Bowie, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt HS) set in 2015. He swam a 4:08.08 in the prelims and came back with a 4:04.77 in the finals.

Sophomore Frank Elenio (Ridgefield, N.J./Bergen County Academies) also broke Witol's former mark, finishing third in 4:07.37. Witol was sixth in 4:10.12 and freshman Matt Bandy (Manhattan, Kans./Manhattan HS) was the consolation champ, placing ninth overall in 4:16.39.

Sophomore Ryan McGeary (Paramus, N.J./Bergen Catholic HS) took second in the 200 freestyle in 1:41.82, an improvement of 0.27 seconds on the school record held by Owen Karl since 2014. Also in the 200 free, junior Aidan Karam (Norwich, Conn./Norwich Free Academy) was sixth in 1:43.76 and senior Davis Wilson (Ransom Canyon, Texas/Lubbock HS) seventh in 1:44.51.

Another school record was broken by junior Chris Vukas (Randolph, N.J./Randolph HS), whose time of 52.51 in the 100 backstroke was good for third place. It was two-hundredths of a second better than the former standard set by Tim Connolly last year. Also in the 100 back, freshman Jarod Yoshishara (Irvine, Calif./University HS) was sixth in 53.29.

Bentley finished fourth in the 200 free relay with Vukas, Wilson, freshman Alper Alkaya (Milan, Italy) and senior Liam Bartlett (Syracuse, N.Y./William Nottingham HS) reaching the wall in 1:24.90.

The Falcons found success in the 100 butterfly with junior Jonny Boains (Unionville, Conn./ Farmington HS) fifth (51.98), senior Colin McCarthy (Glastonbury, Conn./Northwest Catholic HS) sixth (52.22) and Bartlett the consolation winner (53.34).

Rounding out the list of finalists for Bentley on Saturday was freshman Sam Trozenski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon HS) with a seventh in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.90).

Sunday's final day of competition will get underway at 9:45 am.