WORCESTER -- The Engineers of WPI returned to the season after the semester break with a bevy of victories as they defeated a trio of Division II opponents at home today. The men's team defeated Adelphi (NY) 173-120, Bentley 183-110, and Felician (NJ) 214-59.
 
Now 8-4, the team got things off to a hot start in the 200 Medley Relay with the A and B relay squads finishing second and fourth overall. Senior Christopher Smith (Northbridge, MA) teamed up with first-year Kyle Sundberg (East Northport, NY) and juniors Dean Doubek (Arnold, MD) and Sean Tesoro (Reading, MA) to hit the wall in the silver medal position with a time of 1:36.11. 
 
Smith never finished lower than second place as he equaled that result in the 100 back, going 53.79, followed directly by teammate Angad Ahluwalia (Attleboro, MA), who touched in 54.99 for third. In the 200 back, Smith used a strong back half to pull himself away from the field and claim the victory in 1:57.40. He rounded out his day with another win, this time in the 100 fly, as he held off a late charge from Bentley's Daniel Ivanchikov, out-touching him 51.56 to 51.64. 
 
Joining him with a pair of individual event wins was first-year Lucas Brown (Viera, FL). Brown continued the momentum from the medley relay into the 1000 freestyle, where he had a thrilling race with Bentley's Leighton Wielgoszinski. The Falcon surged in the closing stages of the race, to lead at the 850 mark, but Brown put on the afterburners and the deficit around taking the win 9:51.78 to 9:52.25. Brown's teammate, senior Nikita Zuev (Wallingford, CT), earned crucial points as he finished in 2nd place with a time of 10:17.45. 
 
Brown slipped to 3rd in the 500 free as Bentley's Wielgoszinski reversed the tables and surged in the last stages of the race to take the win. Brown's time of 4:46.80 was the fastest time posted by an Engineer with senior Gavin McCullough (Colorado Springs, CO) joining him under 5:00 with a result of 4:57.91. Brown bounced back from his 3rd place finish to claim the win in the 200 IM going 1:57.80. 
 
He came back in the very next men's event to help the WPI B-Relay team take 3rd place overall in the 400 Free Relay, falling only to Bentley's A Team, and WPI's own A Relay team, who won the event in convincing fashion with a time of 3:09.00.
 
Doubek and Tesoro, teamed up again, like in the medley relay, this time leading this off before handing it over to Ahluwalia and junior Nolan Schlessman (Sudbury, MA), who anchored in 46.79, the fastest split in the field, which was not all that surprising as he won the 100 free earlier in the meet in 47.73, nearly a second ahead of his closest competition. Earlier in the meet, the junior took a second place finish in the 200 free, going 1:45.96, and was also the school's highest-ranked swimmer in the 50 free, where his 22.42 placed him fourth. 
 
Joining in on the victory party was sophomore Tom Fitzgerald (Essy Longmeadow, CT), who claimed the win in the 1m springboard competition, scoring 249.95. He also placed 2nd on the 3m, earning 206.05 points. Fellow diver Aaron Lakin (Hamden, CT) collected a pair off fourth place finishes, scoring 129.10 and 126.50 on the 1m and 3m boards respectively. 
 
WPI will look to continue its winning ways as it heads north to Colby to square off against the Mules. Action is set to kick off on Saturday at 1pm.