Bentley Captures Gold in 200 Medley Relay, Finishes Day 3 in 1st Place
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Bentley University Falcons closed out Saturday's action at the 2022 Northeast-10 Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships by capturing the 200 medley relay in school record time. The victory helped give the first-place Falcons a lead of 11.5 points heading into the final day of competition Sunday.
Competing in the Hutchinson Natatorium at Southern Connecticut State University, seniors Oscar Chang (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills West HS), Zach Papsco (Northport, N.Y./Northport HS) and Mark Zoda (Nashua, N.H./Bishop Guertin HS) teamed with freshman Joey Twomey (Sebastian, Fla./Sebastian River HS) for a time of 1:33.26, breaking the record set in December by 0.80 seconds.
Chang led off and, in the process, broke a ten-year-old school record in the 50 backstroke by 0.14 seconds with a 23.88. Papsco swam the breaststroke in 25.44, Twomey posted a 23.78 in the butterfly and Zoda closed with a 20.16 in the freestyle. For Zoda, it was his 13th career gold.
Earlier in the evening, Zoda broke the school record while finishing second in the 200 free. He finished in 1:40.85, an improvement of 0.26 seconds on the standard Ryan McGeary held since 2018.
Also earning silvers were Papsco in the 100 fly (50.17) and junior Anthony Vizental (Concord, Calif./Clayton Valley HS) in the 400 individual medley (4:06.56.
Bronze medals for Bentley on day three were achieved by Papsco in the 200 breaststroke (57.01), Motisi in the 400 IM (4:09.57) and junior Ryan Looney (Wilton, Conn./Wilton HS) in the 100 back (53.36).
Graduate student Alec Lanza (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead HS) just missed the podium in the 400 IM, an event Bentley had three of the top four finishers. His time of 4:16.50 put him in fourth. He also placed seventh in the 100 breast (59.76).
Bentley also received top eight finishes from junior Tanner Eisenhut (Jamesville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS) in the 100 breast (5th, 57.93), Twomey in the 100 fly (6th, 51.69) and senior Owen Busser (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford HS) in the three-meter diving (7th, 390.10).
The team championship looks like it will go right down to the wire. Bentley, the two-time defending champions, extended its lead over Southern from a half-point at the start of the day to 11.5 with a score of 488 points. The Owls have 476.5 and Le Moyne is a distant third at 248.5.
Sunday's prelims are scheduled for 9:45 am and the finals will be at 6 pm.