Worcester Polytechnic Institute Opens Season in Record Setting Fashion

WORCESTER, Massachusetts, October 29. WORCESTER Polytechnic Institute opened its season in record setting fashion last night, as the foursome of Alex Powers, Andrew Kelleher, Erick Burgwardt and Ben List set a pool record in the 200 medley relay in a dual meet against Bentley. On the women’s side, Nysa Casha and Eva Childers each won three events to lead WPI to a sweep over Bentley.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Press Release

The WPI men’s swimming and diving team captured a 166-113 victory over Division II Bentley on Tuesday night at the WPI Sports and Recreation Center.

Alex Powers (Gloucester, RI), Andrew Kelleher (Poughquag, NY), Erick Burgwardt (Mendon, NY) and Ben List (Bedford, MA) began the night off setting a pool record with a victory in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:37.71.

Andrew Bauer (Cumberland, RI) claimed the 50-yard freestyle (22.36) and along with Nathan Hughes (Arlington, VA) finished the 200-yard freestyle just .03 seconds apart to touch the wall one-two. Nick Houghton (Berkley, MA) claimed the 1000-yard freestyle (10:18.65) and was followed by Patrick Lebold (Worcester, PA) (10:39.54). Powers and Burgwardt came home one-two in the 100-yard backstroke with times of 53.45 and 56.01, respectively. Kelleher (1:01.33), Tim Petri (Eksjo, Sweden) (1:01.91) and Matt Puksta (Nashua, NH) (1:03.50).

Adam McNally (Leominster, MA) and Eric Spazzarini (Enfield, CT) posted the best times in the 200-yard butterfly as they turned in times of 2:03.68 and 2:05.53 while Hughes (48:56), Bauer (48:90) and Kelleher (49.46) took first through third in the 100-yard freestyle.

Matt Suarez (Needham, MA) won the 1-meter diving with 186 points as Kevin Lynch (New Rochelle, NY) accumulated 142.12 for third place.

Also earning wins were Powers in the 200-yard backstroke (1:58.76), McNally in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:16.74), Houghton in the 500-yard freestyle (4:57.55), Burgwardt in the 100-yard butterfly (53.46), Seth MacDonald (Sherrill, NY) in the 200-yard IM (1:59.71) and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Burgwardt, Bauer, Huighes and Powers (3:13.58) to cap the night off with another pool record. Suarez amassed 175.72 to take the 3-meter diving event and was followed by Lynch in second place (119.62).

The Engineers are back in action Saturday in the New England Invitational hosted by Wesleyan.

Nysa Casha (Andover, MA) and Eva Childers (Henniker, NH) each won a trio of individual events as the WPI women’s swimming and diving team opened the 2013-14 campaign with a 167-129 triumph over visiting Division II Bentley at the WPI Sports and Recreation Center on Tuesday night.

As a team, WPI struck gold in 11 events and had the fastest time in the 400-yard freestyle relay to cap the first meet of the year. Casha won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:11.84), the 200-yard breaststroke (2:35.61) and the 100-yard butterfly (1:02.17) while Childers took the top spot in the 200-yard butterfly (2:22.15) as well as the 200-yard freestyle (2:01.26) and 500-yard freestyle events (5:29.82).

Emily Martin (Penfield, MA) touched the wall first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.26 and took 55.53 to win the 100-yard freestyle. Sonja Kent (West Boylston, MA) got the Engineers started with a win in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:13.38 while Marissa Patterson (Hampton Falls, NH) added a win in the 100-yard backstroke (1:04.00) and Julia Bushell (Windham, NH) took the 200-yard backstroke (2:18.84). Childers, Tori Claveric, Amanda Konieczny (West Springfield, MA) and Martin turned in a time of 3:45.91 to pace the field in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

On the diving board Veronica Nikolaki (Athens, Greece) came in second in both the 1-meter (264.15) and the 3-meter (224.77) while Sam Sargalski (Windsor, CT) turned in scores of 163.42 and 145.35 to finish fourth in both events.

WPI is back in the pool on Saturday, when they head to Middletown, CT for the New England Invitational hosted by Wesleyan.

Bentley Press Release

The Bentley University men’s swimming and diving team had five individual second-place finishes during its first dual meet of the new season, a 166-113 loss at WPI Tuesday evening.

The Engineers, who were also opening their dual schedule, captured all 16 events en route to the victory with five different athletes winning two individual events.

Recording seconds for Bentley were sophomore Sebastian Bury (Bellevue, Wash./Newport Senior HS) in the 50 yard freestyle (22.62), freshman Nick Cilia (Brentwood, N.H./Exeter HS) in the one-meter diving (157.05), sophomore Alex Liulakis (Tenafly, N.J./Tenafly HS) in the 100 butterfly (55.90), freshman Davis Wilson (Ransom Canyon, Texas/Lubbock HS) in the 500 free (4:58.38) and junior Josh Witty (Los Gatos, Calif./Los Gatos HS) in the 200 backstroke (2:05.28).

Bury and Wilson were also part of Bentley’s 400 free relay that finished second in 3:18.00. That relay also included senior Steve Sylvia (Westerly, R.I./Westerly HS) and sophomore Nick Toselli (Barrington, R.I./Barrington HS).

The Falcons were also second in the 200 medley relay with Sylvia joined by sophomore Tim Connolly (Dorchester/Boston Latin Academy) and seniors Phillip Chan (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier HS) and Andreas Mouritsen (Greve, Denmark).

Bentley University sophomore All-America Nicola Mancini (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth HS) captured both diving events, but the meet belonged to WPI with the Engineers prevailing 167-129 in women’s college swimming at WPI Tuesday night. It was the opening dual meet of the season for both teams.

Mancini posted a winning score of 264.15 off the one-meter board and prevailed in the three-meter with a 274.95.

Bentley’s other two victories in the meet included sophomore Meg Pernsteiner (Highland Heights, Ohio/Hawken School). She was the first to the wall in the 200 yard individual medley, touching in 2:21.46, and she was part of the Falcons’ 200 medley relay that prevailed in the meet’s opening event.

Pernsteiner combined with senior Heather Exley (Oceanside, Calif./Vista HS), sophomore Melissa Clauss (Oakland, N.J./Bergen County Academies) and freshman Kaitlin McGahie (Boylston/ Tahanto Reg. HS) for a time of 1:56.58.

Bentley had nine second-place finishes in the meet, including three involving McGahie. She was the runner-up in both the 50 free (25.58) and 100 free (56.15), and was also part of the Falcons’ 400 free relay, along with Clauss and sophomores Kelly Culkin (Avon, Conn./Avon HS) and Lindsey Goodwin (Staten Island, N.Y./Notre Dame Academy).

Other seconds were posted by Culkin (1000 free, 11:33.45), Exley (100 breast, 1:12.06), Pernsteiner (200 back, 2:21.39), Exley (200 breast, 2:38.86), Clauss (100 fly, 1:02.58) and freshman Nicole Hellstern (Southbury, Conn./Pomperaug HS) (200 free, 2:06.37).

Bentley’s next meet is Saturday afternoon at Le Moyne College.

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