Falcons Finish 2nd at NE10 Championship; Hapkiewicz and Almog Win Gold on Final Night, Plus Major Awards
WORCESTER, Mass. – Bentley came in second place at the Northeast 10 Women's Swimming and Diving Championship as the meet concluded on Sunday. Emma Hapkiewicz won her third individual gold medal of the meet in the 1650 free and Hilla Almog claimed her second gold with the 3 meter diving event.
The Falcons finished second with 756.5 points. Southern Connecticut came in first place with 1061.5 points.
For the second straight year, Hapkiewicz was named the Women's Swimmer of the Meet. Almog was named the Women's Diver of the Meet.
Hapkiewicz swept the 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle events for the second straight year. On Sunday night she dominated the 1650 free with a time of 17:06.49, more than 40 seconds better than the second place swimmer. It beat her previous best time in the 1650 this season by more than 12 seconds, which was already the top time in the NE10 this season.
Almog's unbeaten season continued with gold in the 3 meter diving. She claimed the top spot with a score of 403.90. She won the 1 meter diving on Friday.
Skyla Lang won silver in the 200 breaststroke, to go along with the silver she won with the 200 free relay on Friday and the bronze in the 100 breaststroke on Saturday. Her time in the 200 breaststroke was 2:25.64.
In addition to Lang, Emily Blatt was 7th and Grace Motisi 9th in that event. Blatt helped the 400 medley team win silver on Friday and Motisi won silver with the 200 free team on Friday.
Three Falcons were in the finals of the 200 yard backstroke; Taylor White finished 7th, Brydie Olofson finished 9th and Sarah Griffith finished 10th. White's time was 2:13.25. Olofson's time of 2:14.73 was a personal best and Griffith's time of 2:17.10 was a personal best as well.
The 100 free had Jordan Nuzback and Bella Montanari in the finals. Nuzback was 6th at 53.64 and just missed the podium by less than a second. Montanari, who won silver in the 100 breaststroke on Saturday, was 10th with a personal best of 53.88.
The 200 butterfly finals had Caroline Ubert and Lily Rice finish in the top-five. Ubert was 4th with a personal best 2:10.26 and Rice was 5th at 2:11.43.
Rachel Thilow, in 8th at 2:24.65 and Sophia Wong, in 10th at 2:24.26, also qualified for the 200 fly finals.
The final event of the Championships was the 400 free relay and the Falcons' team of Nuzback, Lang, Hapkiewicz and Montanari just missed the podium by .29 seconds. They came in 4th with a time of 3:34.23.
Overall the Falcons won 13 medals during the four days of competition.