BRYANT MEN’S SWIMMING RACES PAST COMPETITION AT HAROLD ANDERSON INVITATIONAL, GENERATE SECOND PLACE FINISH

December 6, 2010

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University men's swimming team engineered its best performance of the 2010-11 season this past weekend, finishing just 3.5 points behind Providence at the Harold Anderson Invitational hosted by URI.

In the meet, which pulled points from both swimming and diving events, the Black and Gold dominated in the lanes, taking seven first-place finishes. But without a diving team, Bryant was left off the diving scoreboard, where the Friars earned 66 points to edge out the Bulldogs in the final standings.

Providence finished with 701 points while Fairfield, Maine, Rhode Island, and Holy Cross rounded out the six-team field behind Bryant.

The Black and Gold recorded multiple first-place finishes with Alex Kosenki (Lavallette, N.J.) leading the pack. The New Jersey native shattered the meet-record for the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.89.

Kosenki went on to capture the 50-yard freestyle event with a time of 21.65 and the 200-yard freestyle event with a top-mark of 1:45.

Joining Kosenski as a top finisher was Cameron Hessler (Southbury, Conn.) who finished first in the 100-yard backstroke competition with a time of 54.31 and registered a second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:57.

Steven Nguyen (San Jose, Calif.) finished second in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:11. Bryant also received a solid showing from junior Thomas Huynh (Malden, Mass.) who finished second in the 100-yard butter with a time of 52.72

Despite the dominant individual performances by the Bulldogs, the relay team success proved to be the theme of the meet.

Sean Martell was part of several top finishing relay teams.

The 400-yard medley relay team of Hessler, Sean Martell (Nashua, N.H.), Nicholas Karadimas (New Milford, Conn.) and Kosenski recorded a second-place finish with a time of 3:36.

Nathan Lee (Monson, Mass.), Logan Hammerstein (Fairfield Township, Ohio), Kevin McDonald (North Haven, Conn.) and Kosenki took first place in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:27.

Pacing the 200-yard Medley Relay was Hessler, Martell, Karadimas and McDonald who captured first with a time of 1:38, while McDonald, Karadimas, Nguyen and Kosenski engineered a first-place time of 3:12 in the 400-yard freestyle relay, nearly 2.5 seconds faster than second place Providence.

The Black and Gold are back in the pool Saturday Dec. 11 against the University of Rhode Island.