WORCESTER, Mass. – Binghamton got off to a solid start in the first day of the America East Swimming & Diving Championships on Thursday night at WPI. The Bearcat men are second place out of four teams while the women's squad is third out of seven teams.

Both Binghamton 200 medley relay teams made it to the medal stand. The men's quartet of sophomores Patrick Wilson and Shane Morris along with seniors Matthew Devito and Alex Brion clocked a second-place time of 1:30.67. The women's relay team of sophomore Erica Bachiller, juniors Sydney Atendito and Olivia Santos as well as senior Brooke Pettis were third in a time of 1:43.67.

In the diving events, sophomore David Walters was second in the men's one-meter event (277.40) while freshman Amanda McGraw was the runner up in the women's three-meter competition (230.75). Also placing in the men's event were freshman Chris Egan, who was fourth (248.35) and senior Colin Coughlan, who was sixth (232.30).

Also earning runner-up honors was the men's 800 free relay team of juniors Thomas Mackey and Dylan Van Manen and Ross Bernstein along with senior Max Willard. They recorded a time of 6:47.66.

"We are excited with how both out teams swam today," head coach Brad Smith said. "The 200 medley relay was huge – especially getting third place on the women's side. We had some splits on both sides that were nearly as fast as our school record times. The divers did well tonight also and we had some good splits in the 800 free relay."

Day two of the America East Swimming & Diving Championships starts at 11 a.m. on Friday with the preliminaries. The finals will be at 5:30 p.m.

"The preliminaries are going to be big for us on Friday," Smith said. "The key for us is to get as many of our swimmers in the top eight. We've got a close battle going on in the women's meet and its important for us to come out strong."