Men's Swimming & Diving Places Second at RWU Invitational

By Jim Fenton

BRISTOL, R.I. -- The Bridgewater State University men's swimming & diving team placed second at the Roger Williams University Invitational on Saturday.

In the season-opening meet for the Bears, they had 177 points to place behind only the host Hawks, who had 627 points.

Eastern Connecticut State University was third with 135 points followed by Maine Maritime Academy with 117 points.

BSU junior Aaron Fowler (Brookline, Mass.) was first in one event, second in another and helped two relay teams place second.

Fowler won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.28 to break the invitational record of 53.09 set in 2016.

He was second in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 55:37.

Senior Desmond Ng (Petaling Jaya, Malaysia) was the winner of the 100-yard breaststroke with a meet-record time of 58.27. The previous mark, set in 2023, was 1:00.36.

The BSU 200-yard medley relay team was second to Roger Williams with a time of 1:37.88.

The Bears' team consisted of senior Ryan McKenzie (Charlton, Mass.), Ng, Fowler and junior Jirat Saengthong (Watertown, Mass.).

Fowler was also part of the 400-yard freestyle relay team with Saengthong, freshman Wilco Zbitnoff (Haverhill, Mass.) and freshman James Hein (Holliston, Mass.) that was second to Roger Williams.

Saengthong was third for the Bears in the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 49.88. He was also eighth in the 100-yard backstroke.

Hein was fifth in the 100 freestyle in a time of 50.91. He was also 10th in the 200-yard individual medley.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team finished in 1:32.86 to place second behind Roger Williams.

The relay team included senior Richard Palanza (Mansfield, Mass.), freshman Kaua Deassis (Mansfield, Mass.), McKenzie and Ng.

Zbitnoff finished eighth in the 100-yard backstroke with teammates Drew Lawrence (Winchendon, Mass.), a junior, and junior Nathan Barnes (Billerica, Mass.) right behind him in ninth and 10th place.

BSU will have its home opener on Saturday when it goes against Wheaton College at 2 p.m.