February 9, 2009
MEN'S SWIMMING COMES UP WITH SOLID PERFORMANCES AT NEW ENGLAND INVITATIONAL SATURDAY AFTERNOON
KINGSTON, R.I. - The Bryant University men's swim team had two more individuals qualify for the ECAC Championships and three relay teams as the squad put together some strong swims at the New England Invitational held at the University of Rhode Island on Saturday.
Sean Martell (Nashua, N.H. / Nashua North) qualified in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, swimming career-best times of 1:01.36 in the 100 and 2:14.70 in the 200. He placed first overall in both events.
Freshman Kevin McDonald (North Haven, Conn. / North Haven) also swam a career-best time, touching the wall in 54.90 seconds while finishing second in the 100 backstroke and qualifying for the ECAC Championships.
Bryant was able to qualify all three of their relay teams as well, with the 200 freestyle relay team of Ray Savner (Bethlehem, Conn. / Holy Cross), Steven Nguyen (San Jose, Calif. / Lynbrook), McDonald and Tom Ferrigno (West Chester, Pa. / Malvern Prep) starting off the day with a season-best time of 1:28.14. The same team put up another season-best time of 3:16.69 in the 400 freestyle relay to finish the day. The 200 medley relay team that included Ferrigno, Savner and McDonald while adding in Martell combined for a 1:39.90.
The Bulldogs have four other first place finishes on the day, as Nguyen took down the top spot in both the 100 and 200 freestyle, while Zach Bowen (Linchefield, N.H. / Campbell) and Savner won the 200 fly and 50 free respectively. Savner swam a team season-best time of 22.33 while qualifying for the ECAC championships on all three relay teams.
The Bryant men will send five individuals to Harvard for the ECAC Championships taking place February 27 through March 1.
