MECHANICSBURG, PA - Susquehanna men's swim team completed a competitive weekend on the road at Messiah on Saturday. Feeling like they were still in stride following Friday night's road meet down at York, the River Hawks took advantage of the opportunity against the Falcons with some premiere wins. Though Messiah held on for a slim 103-95 win, Susquehanna had plenty to celebrate.

It all started when Susquehanna got the first 11 points in the 400 medley relay, where the young team of Brandon Sutherland, Akira Black, Dan Venuti and Liam Halligan won by a four-second margin with a time of 3:51.56. Tim Wetmore and Joey Wayne both swam the 1000-yard freestyle, coming in a respective second and third with 11:20.45 and 11:44.37 times to gather seven combined points. SU yielded seven more points in the 200 freestyle as Keegan Pence placed second at 1:56.07 and Halligan third at 2:00.52. Eskander Bierman earned his first victory of the new campaign after capturing the 50-yard freestyle at 23.15, beating out Messiah's Nathan Book by .05 seconds. Kade Cimakasky was also in the conversation with his third-place time of 23.44. Venuti came back to score another victory and nine points for the River Hawks in the 400 IM at 4:36.60, opening up nearly an 11-second margin, then placing second in the 100 butterfly at 56.56. Susquehanna's depth continued to aid them as they swept spots two through four in the 100 freestyle off of David Gentile's 50.87, Black's 52.96, and Cimakasky's 53.10. 

Sutherland added another spark when he logged the lone sub-minute time in the 100 backstroke with a winning time of 59.79. Wayne and Smith took second and third, respectively, in the 500 freestyle, Wayne at 5:33.17 and Smith 5:51.80. The group of Black, Gentile and Wetmore took spots two through four, respectively, in the 100 breaststroke, as Black's team-best time of 1:03.66 put him just 1.66 behind Book's winning time of 1:02.00. Messiah held a narrow 92-89 three-point lead going into the final event, the 400 freestyle relay, which they prevailed in, though by just three-and-a-half seconds, as the Falcons' winning time of 3:24.21 was just ahead of Bierman, Wetmore, Halligan, and Cimakasky's time of 3:27.87. 

The River Hawks' next series of matches are all Landmark contests as they ship out to Juniata on Friday for a tri-match with the Eagles and Lycoming, then on Saturday a road dual match at Drew.