BOSTON, Mass. - The Regis College Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving teams both sit in second place after the first day of the 2014 Great Northeast Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships hosted by Simmons College. The Pride men currently have 104 points, while the women scooped up 101.5 points on the day.
"We swam awesome today", said Coach James Sweeney, "as we had many lifetime and season best times. With only a short rest for this meet we saw tremendous improvement. The swim of the day belonged to Haley. To do a lifetime best time and to break a school record at this time of the season without a full rest and shave was incredible. We're looking for more great swims tomorrow."
Numerous GNAC records were broken by the Pride on the day, senior A.J. Graf (Newton, Mass.) broke the conference record in the 50 yard freestyle finishing the race in 22.17, Kiet Luong (Malden, Mass.) shattered the GNAC record in the 50 yard butterfly with a time of 23.54, Luong just narrowly missed breaking a school record by a millisecond. Cassidy Bastinelli (Newton, Mass.) set the league record in the 200 yard freestyle finishing with a time of 1:46.79, Bastinelli also finished second in the 50 yard freestyle behind teammate A.J. with a time of 22.42, his time was also under the old GNAC record. The 400 yard medley relay team of Luong, who led off the relay and broke his own GNAC record, Graf, freshman Nick Rainville (Reading, Mass.) and Bastinelli shattered the GNAC record with a time of 3:44.27.
On the women's side, senior Haley Bowen (Litchfield, N.H.) came in second place, set a new school record, and qualified for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championships by finishing the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:09.13. Her second place finish was just under a GNAC record. Jessica Higgins (Peabody, Mass.) finished the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:15.94 which also set a GNAC record as well.
The Championships will continue tomorrow morning, with the first event set to begin at 10 a.m. at the Holmes Sports Center at Simmons College. The finals are scheduled for 5 p.m.
Women - Team Rankings - Through Event 20
1. Simmons College 204
2. Regis College 101.5
3. Saint Joseph's College of ME 46
4. Husson University 28.5
5. Elms College 20
6. University of Saint Joseph 18
7. Norwich University 14
Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 20
1. Norwich University 151
2. Regis College 104
3. Elms College 65
4. Saint Joseph's College of ME 60
5. Husson University 31