WORCESTER -- The first day of the 2024 Gompei Invitational at the Sports and Recreation Center on the campus of WPI kicked off with a pair of first place finishes and eight top-five finishes for the WPI men's and women's swimming and diving teams.
 
After the first day of competition, Bryant leads with 3,189 combined points while the Engineers are in second with a point total of 2,150.5 points followed by Bentley in third with 1,419 points. Springfield is in fourth (1,262.5), Sacred Heart in fifth (947), Brandeis in sixth (859), Central Connecticut in seventh (498), Merrimack in eighth (363) and Clark rounds out the competition in ninth (140). 
 
Christopher Smith (Northbridge, MA) earned the first individual title for the Engineers with a time of 1:53.79 in the 200 IM, a season best for the junior and just a couple of seconds off his career best time.  Additionally, the WPI Mixed Synchro Diving of Val Corrente (East Setauket, NY) and Tom Fitzgerald (East Longmeadow, MA) added another first place finish by besting Bentley.
 
Following Smith in the Men's 200 IM A Final was Brian Hall (Westford, MA) who finished in a tie for seventh with a time of 1:56.92. Jake Thomas (Wenham, MA) took second in the B Final with a time of 1:58.02 while Tyson Elliott (Portland, OR) finished 15th in 2:01.35 and Bora Hurst (West Palm Beach, FL) rounded out the pack in 16th in 2:01.40. 
 
In the Women's 200 IM, Lada DiMascolo (Puyallup, WA) took eighth overall with a time of 2:11.69 while Sarah Kang (Richmond, VA) also finished with a second place finish in the B Final with a time of 2:11.60. 
 
The first night of finals kicked off with Kristina MacLeod (Jackson Hole, WY) bringing home eighth place in the 50 free in a time of 24.56 while Leah Kolb (Canton, MI) and Katrina Waite (Falmouth, ME) took 16th and 19th with times of 24.85 and 25.33 respectively. 
 
On the men's side, Dean Doubek (Arnold, MD) earned a spot on the podium clocking in at 21.20 for third place. Sean Tesoro (Reading, MA) brought home another top-five finish with a fifth place, 21.32 time. In the B Final, Nolan Schlessman (Sudbury, MA) touched the wall first in 21.34 for an 11th place finish overall while Andrew Van De Water (Stratham, NH) took 14th in 22.01, Gavin McCullough (Geneva, IL) earned 16th in 22.06 and Angad Ahluwalia (Attleboro, MA) finished 18th in 22.13. 
 
In the freestyle distance event of the day, Aidan Greenfield (Northport, NY) earned a sixth place finish with a time of 4:49.01, a season best. In the B Final, Fraser Milligan (Middlebury, VT) clocked in 13th with a time of 4:56.08 followed by Nikita Zuev (Wallingford, CT) in 15th with a time of 4:59.59, Daniel Cory (Reading, MA) in 18th with a time of 5:06.53 and Jacob Antonovich (Fairfax, VT) in 19th with a time of 5:09.34. 
 
Kylie Herbstzuber (Medfield, MA) brought home a top-10 finish in the 200 Breast with a time of 2:34.81 while Milena Whitney (Bedford, NH) earned the top spot in the B Final with a time of 2:28.34. A slew of Engineers earned points on the men's side of the event with Hurst and Elliott going 5-6 in the event with times of 2:15.00 and 2:15.23 respectively. Jack Duryea (Sag Harbor, NY) and Eli Budde (Sykesville, MD) rounded out the A Final pack with a 9-10 finish in 2:16.57 and 2:16.83. Kyle Chang (Seal Beach, CA) also brought home a win, edging out the C Final victory with a time of 2:26.88 in the event. 
 
The Engineers were paced in the Women's 100 Fly by Kang who netted a time of 57.47, while Smith took home another top-5 finish with a fourth place, 50.76 time, both season bests. Hall rounded out the A Final with a time of 52.55 and in the B Final Engineers took six-straight spots, 13th to 18th to conclude the individual competition on the night. 
 
Lucas Pralle (Wayland, MA) started things off with a 13th place, 52.71 finish followed by Tesoro (14th, 52.93), Doubek (15th, 52.95), McCullough (16th, 53.04), Van De Water (17th, 53.21) and Ryan Ng (Hasbrouck Heights, NJ) in 18th with a time of 52.76. 
 
The WPI relays added a number of points to the team total as the day started off with the 200 Yard Mixed Relay where Smith (back), Duryea (breast), Kang (fly) and DiMascolo (free) combined for a time of 1:40.55 and a sixth place finish.
 
In the night finals, the Women's 200 Medley Relay team of Leah Kolb (Canton, MI), Whitney, Kang and MacLeod also finished in sixth with a time of 1:47.87 while the men's team brought home a top-five finish with a time of 1:34.17 as Smith, Duryea, Doubek and Tesoro teamed up for the fourth place finish. 
 
The night concluded with the 800 free relay as the women's squad of Kang, Audrey Dino (St. Louis, MO), MacLeod and DiMascolo combined for another sixth place, 8:00.65 time while the men's foursome of Smith, Greenfield, Tesoro and Schlessman clocked in with a fifth place, 7:10.59 finish to round out the evening. 
 
The squad is back in action on Saturday, December 7 with day two of the Gompei Invitational. The morning session will begin at 9 am followed by Diving and then the finals kicking off at 6pm. 

Results