Three NE10 Championship Records Broken on Saturday.
WORCESTER, Mass. - Saturday night proved to be another big showing for the Southern Connecticut men's and women's programs, as they extended their leads on the third day of the Northeast-10 Conference Swimming & Diving Championship at the WPI Sports & Recreation Center. Three different SCSU athletes recorded NCAA B-Cut swims to highlight the night for the Owls.
One night after setting the NE10 Championship record in the 100 Back, Hailey Nyquist broker her own record in Saturday's finals with a swim of 55.51 - good for a gold medal and B-Cut. She later would follow up that performance with another B-Cut in the 100 Fly, swimming it in 56.01 to earn a silver medal. One of Nyquist's biggest competitors was her own teammate - Justice Glasgow - who won the 100 Fly and earned a B-Cut with a swim of 55.23.
On the men's side, Franklin Kuhn had a big swim for SCSU in the 200 Free - earning a B-Cut with a time of 1:39.91. He edged out Adelphi's Cooper Rivers, who swam it in a time of 1:40.01 and also earned a B-Cut. Rivers won the 400 IM earlier in the night (4:03.59) and was also part of the Adelphi 200 Medley Relay that set an NE10 Championship record with a time of 1:30.85 in the final event of the evening.
The SCSU women have 720.5 points, a comfortable lead over second-place Bentley with 523.5 points. The SCSU men have 622 points, a healthy lead over second-place Bentley (485 points) and third-place Adelphi (400.5). Overall on Saturday, SCSU placed first in six of 13 events combined.
Pace diver Sean Rorke completed his sweep of the men's finals, as he recorded 463.05 points in the 1-meter dive to earn gold for the second-straight year. Adelphi's Ryan Kakimseit joined Nyquist in breaking his own record - which he set a remarkable three times between Friday and Saturday - in the 100 Back. He swam it in 49.47 during the 400 Medley Relay on Friday, then followed it with a 49.42 in Saturday's prelims and 49.26 in Saturday's finals - all of which were NE10 Championship records. Kakimseit was also a member of the record-setting 200 Medley Relay team.
The final day of the Championship begins at 10:15 a.m. with prelims in 3-meter women's diving, 200 Back, 100 Free, 200 Breast and 200 Fly. Beginning at 3 p.m. will be prelims for the 1650 Free. Finals will begin at a special time of 5:30 p.m. and NE10 Commissioner Julie Ruppert will be interviewed on the broadcast. Catch all the action on NE10NOW.tv and visit Championship Central for heat sheets and live results.
ABOUT THE NE10
The NE10 is an association of 12 diverse institutions serving student-athletes across 24 NCAA Division II sports. Together we build brilliant futures by embracing the journey of every student-athlete.
Each year, 4,500 of those student-athletes compete in conference championships in 24 sports, making the NE10 the largest DII conference in the country in terms of sport sponsorship. Leading the way in the classroom, on the field and within the community, the NE10 is proud of its comprehensive program and the experience it provides student-athletes.
