Norton, MA --- Four WPI swimmers and divers notched multiple individual wins on Saturday as the Engineers went on the road and swept host Wheaton in a meet rescheduled because of a January snowstorm. The men won by a 130-109 count while the women were victorious by a score of 129-102. The victories gave head coach Paul Bennett his 100th and 101st career wins.
On the women's side, senior captain Sonja Kent (West Boylston, MA) was dominant in the distance freestyles, capturing the 1,000-yard in a time of 11:06.62 and the 500-yard in 5:27.05, while junior Nysa Casha (Andover, MA) touched the wall first in the 100-yard butterfly (1:01.35) and 100-yard backstroke (1:11.26). Veronica Nikolaki (Athens, Greece) also took gold in two solo events, winning both the 1-meter (262.27) and 3-meter (219.82) diving events.
Freshman Emily Martin (Penfield, NY) pocketed a pair of wins in the 200-yard individual medley (2:17.18) and then as part of a 200-yard freestyle relay quartet that also included sophomore Amanda Konieczny (West Springfield, MA), freshman Eva Childers (Henniker, NH) and Casha (1:43.09).
Andrew Bauer (Cumberland, RI) highlighted the men's performance. The rookie took victories in both sprint freestyles with a time of 22.26 in the 50-yard event and a 48.16 in the 100-yard.
Freshman Tim Petri (Eksjo, Sweden) was victorious in the 100-breaststroke (59.63), while sophomore Alex Powers (Glocester, RI) claimed the 100-yard backstroke (52.77) and freshman Matt Suarez (Needham, MA) won the 1-meter diving with a score of 221.62. Seth MacDonald (Sherrill, NY) added a versatile contribution, winning the 200-yard individual medley (2:00.21), finishing second in the 100-yard butterfly (53.64) and swimming second as part of a winning 400-yard medley relay team (3:37.19), along with Powers, Andrew Kelleher (Poughquag, NY), and Ben Collins (Newbury, MA) in the first event of the meet.
Kelleher also grabbed second in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.82) behind Petri, while junior Nick Houghton (Berkley, MA) finished runner-up in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:20.38) and the 500-yard freestyle (4:57.33).
Sophomore Nathan Hughes (Arlington, VA) was second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:47.23), while junior Eric Schattschneider (Chappaqua, NY) finished behind Bauer in the 100-yard freestyle, taking second (49.11).
The final second-place finish on the men's side came in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:29.32) with a team of Bauer, Kelleher, and juniors Adam Trumbley (Prospect, CT) and Ben List (Bedford, MA).
On the women's side, Martin and Childers also turned second-place performances – Martin in the 100-yard freestyle (56.16) and Childers in the 200-yard freestyle (2:01.08) falling in a photo finish.
Freshman Marissa Patterson (Hampton Falls, NH) was second in 100-yard backstroke (1:04.41), and freshman Tori Claverie (Derry, NH) finished a close third in the 50-yard freestyle. The two rookies also joined forces in a second-place 400-yard medley relay team (4:15.13), with help from freshman Zoe Eggleston (Newtown, CT) and senior Taylor Briseno (Mansfield, MA).
It marked the final dual meets of the season for the Boynton Hillers, with the men improving to 7-2 and the women moving to 7-3. The Engineers have their final tune-up before the NEWMAC Championships next Friday and Saturday when they return to Norton for the two-day Wheaton Invitational.
Post-Meet Interview with Veronica, Julia and Nysa.
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Post-Meet Interview with Ben List.
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