WELLESLEY, Mass. – Led by four 50-plus scorers and nine record-breaking performances,  Eastern Connecticut State University moved up a spot on the final day of the four-day Little East Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships to finish second in a five-team field at the third annual championship which concluded Sunday night at the Boston Sports Institute.

Trailing second-place Keene State by seven points after the second day, Eastern outscored the Owls by nine over seven events Sunday to edge Keene by two points in the final standings. Bridgewater State University won its third straight title (955 points), with Eastern second (836) and Keene State third (834). Forty of Keene's points in the competition came when they won the one meter and three meter diving events unopposed (Eastern does not sponsor diving). The Warriors had placed third in each of the first two championships.

In all, Eastern swimmers were accorded All-LEC honors with Top 3 finishes a total of 36 times – 16 in individual events and 20 in relays.

Junior Joseph Sylvester (Morris) led Eastern with 56 points, first-year swimmer Nico Iannucci (Parsippany, NJ) following closely with 54, sophomore Sam Hurlburt (Meriden) adding 52 and junior Connor Rego (Winsted) contributing 51. Those four top scorers, along with junior Ben D'Addario (Fairfield), all earned All-LEC recognition in all three of their individual events.

Rego, who won the program's first two individual titles last year in the 100 and 200 butterfly, captured three seconds this year in the 200 and 400 IM and 200 butterfly.
All five of Eastern's relays gained All-LEC honors. D'Addario and Iannucci were members of four of those relays. Senior Nathan Melia (Manchester) contributed a leg to three, Rego, Sylvester, senior Connor Scully (Oxford) and first-year swimmer Ryan Jezek (Avon) were part of two of those relays and first-year swimmer Samuel Ainscough (Mystic) contributed to one.

Sylvester (500 and 1000 freestyle), Hurlburt (200 breaststroke) and Iannucci (100 breaststroke) all captured events in record-breaking fashion. Sylvester was timed in 4:55.89 in the 500 and 10:22.23 in the 1000, Hurlburt 2:11.27 in the 200 breaststroke and Iannucci in 57.60 in the 100 breaststroke that broke both the program and LEC Championship records.

Sylvester became the first winner of the 500 and 1000 freestyles after Aidan Urnezis of Keene State (since graduated) claimed those events in each of the first two years of the championship,

Iannucci broke program records in all three of his individual events. In addition to the 100 breaststroke, Iannucci set program records in the preliminaries of the 50 breaststroke (26.68) and in the final of the 100 IM (54.06).

The 800 freestyle won the team's fifth title in a program-record time of 7:19.23. Scully, D'Addario, Iannucci and Sylvester all swam a leg.

Additional top scorers included D'Addario (49 points), Scully (44), Melia (43), first-year swimmer Stephen Canavan (Ashford) (42), and Jezek (40).