NORTON, Mass. – Senior Kevin Rice (Vienna, Va.) tallied a team-high 20 points to lead the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's swimming & diving team in a 182-106 loss to visiting Bentley University this evening at Balfour Natatorium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons slip to 0-1 following their season-opening meet, while the Falcons up their record to 2-2.
Bentley won 11 of the 16 events on the night.
Rice recorded a pair of victories. He won the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:05.56 and the 200-yard breaststroke after clocking in at 2:16.50. He added a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley (2:03.80). Sophomore Marcus Tran (Milton, Mass.) also took home two wins with the best times in the sprint events. He touched the wall in a tidy 21.20 in the 50-yard freestyle and out-performed the field in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.44.
Junior Koby Wulfmeyer (New Paltz, N.Y.), sophomore Leo Bailon Garcia (Guatemala City, Guatemala), senior Jadyn Arnold (Oakland, Maine) and Tran combined on a time of 1:27.25 to win the 200-yard freestyle relay to close out the meet for the Lyons.
Bailon Garcia added a pair of runner-up efforts in the butterfly events with a time of 1:58.65 in the 200 and 53.09 in the 100, while Wheaton sophomore Abel Haller (Needham, Mass.) finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:00.56 and the 200-yard individual medley with a mark of 2:02.61. First year Kale Copeland (Greenfield, Mass.) made his collegiate debut with a second-place showing in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:47.07 and was third in the 500-yard freestyle (4:55.31). Junior Aidan Saunders (Harpswell, Maine) also recorded a second and third-place effort for the home squad, hitting the wall at 2:20.42 as the runner-up in the 200-yard breaststroke and was third in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:01.51.
Senior Daniel Lehr (Bethlehem, Pa.) tallied 21 points and won a pair of events to lead the visitors. Lehr won both the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly events with respective times of 53.29 and 52.46 for the Falcons. He placed third in the 100-yard freestyle. Right behind him was classmate Matthew Walden (Cumberland, R.I.) with 20 points. He also won a pair of events with a time of 1:56.14 in the 200-yard backstroke and 1:57.96 in the 200-yard individual medley to go with a fourth-place effort in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Bentley split the relays with its host, winning the opening 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:28.98. Walden led off with the lead backstroke, before yielding to junior Kenny Guan (Quincy, Mass.) in the breaststroke. Senior Daniel Ivanchikov (Leola, Pa.) followed with the butterfly, before sophomore Alex Kosel's (Maple Grove, Minn.) freestyle anchor sealed the win.
Additionally, five other competitors picked up 13 points with a first and a second place showing for the Falcons. First year William Dino (St. Louis, Mo.) won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:52.41, before finishing second in the 1000-yard freestyle and Ivanchikov topped the field in the 200-yard butterfly (1:55.57) to go with a runner-up effort in the 200-yard backstroke. First year Matthew Michitti (Farmington, Conn.) touched first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:46.69 and was the second-place finisher in the 500-yard freestyle.
Bentley sophomores Paul Lawry and Jack Levy (Lawrenceville, Ga.) split the diving accolades with Lawry winning on the three-meter board with a score of 151.35 points to with a second-place finish on the one-meter board and Levy scoring 149.25 to take the one-meter board, before a second-place finish on the three-meter board. Guan also won an event with the fastest time in the 100-yard breaststroke at 59.73 in addition to a third-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The Lyons return to compete when they host Bridgewater State University on Saturday, October 31 at 11:00 a.m., while the Falcons swim again on Friday, October 30 when they host College of the Holy Cross at 4:00 p.m.
