WORCESTER, Mass. -- The WPI men's swimming and diving team got off to a hot start on Saturday, winning the first seven events en route to a 156-107 victory over visiting Bridgewater State at Clark's Kneller Athletic Center. Mason Ruffing (Stone Mountain, GA) won three races to pace the WPI attack.
With the win, WPI improved to 3-5 on the season while Bridgewater State slipped to 2-7.
The Engineers set the tone early, picking up a win in the first event of the day, the 200-yard medley relay. James Perez-Rogers (Woodstock, NY), Rob Cakounes (Chelmsford, MA), Ruffing and Alford Green (Portmore, Jamaica) combined to swim to victory in 1:45.75. WPI swept the top three spots in the next two events, as JP Miralda (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) followed with a win in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:38.55) and Steve Rose (Worcester, MA) claimed victory in the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.06).
The Engineers continued to add to their lead in the next four events, as Andrew Lybarger (Atlanta, GA) won the 50-yard freestyle (26.42) and Cullen O'Brien (Bar Harbor, ME) earned the win in the 50-yard breaststroke (31.02) before Ruffing and Lee Chiang (Lexington, MA) picked up top honors in the 100-yard butterfly (55.45) and 50-yard freestyle (22.49), respectively.
Ruffing added his third win of the day in the 100-yard backstroke (56.86), while Green picked up his second win in the 100-yard freestyle (52.09). Duje Jelaska (Brookfield, CT) picked up WPI's final win of the afternoon, a victory in the 500-yard free (5:30.54).
Bridgewater State rallied toward the end of the meet, winning the last four events for six victories on the day. Glenn Bergquist (Needham, MA) picked up two wins for the Bears in the 1-meter (217.85) and three-meter dives (244.40) while Brendan Sullivan (Holyoke, MA) also earned two victories in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:11.4) and 200-yard IM (2:21.45).
Josh Sturges (Corpus Christi, TX) registered two race wins as well, touching the wall first in the 50-yard butterfly (28.99) before combining with Kelan O'Connell (Taunton, MA), Matt Brown (Burlington, MA) and Sam Herman (Londonderry, NH) to win the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:47.92).