WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley men's swimming and diving team will look to take home a big haul of medals at the Northeast 10 Championship this week, which gets underway on Thursday afternoon and runs through Sunday. The meet takes place on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The Falcons are predicted to be one of the meet favorites in Pre-Championship poll, with the coaches voting them in third place with one first-place vote and 41 points. Southern Connecticut and Adelphi took the top two spots.

The Falcons are four-time NE10 champions in their history, most recently back-to-back champions in 2019 and 2020. They have been runner-up the past two seasons to Southern Connecticut and will be looking to reclaim the top spot from the Owls.

Distance freestyle swimmers Andrew Matjucha and Leighton Wiegloszinski look to be two of Bentley's top performers. Matjucha has the second-best seed time in the 1000 and 1650 free and a top-three time in the 500. At last year's NE10s he took silver in the 500 and 1650.

Wiegloszinski has a top-three seed time in the 1000 and 1650 and a top-four time in the 500.

A number of relay teams can expect to be top contenders for medals. The 400 and 800 free relay teams have the number two seed times and the 200 free and 400 medley teams have the number three seed times. Last year the Falcons won gold in the 200 free relay and took silver in the 400 and 800 free relays and the 200 and 400 medley relays.

Senior Wellington Chen will look to get on the podium as he has a top-five seed time in the 50 free.

Several freshmen will look to make a splash in their first NE10 Championship meet. Daniel Ivanchikov, NE10 Rookie of the Week on Jan. 23, has a top-three seed time in the 200 free.

Daniel Lehr was Rookie of the Week on Jan. 30 and he has a top-three seed time in the 100 back. Matt Walden has a top-three seed time in the 400 IM and top-five seed times in the 200 IM and 200 back.

In the diving events, sophomore Owen Angkatavanich will look to medal in his first NE10 Championship meet. A three-time Diver of the Week this season, he will be among the top contenders for the podium in both the 1 and 3 meter events.

All of the action this weekend can be streamed on NE10 Now