Mark Zoda, shown during his Bishop Guertn days, had a phenominal senior season for Bentley University. (File photo courtesy of Br. Ralph Lebel/Bishop Guertin)

Nashua’s Mark Zoda had a great career at Bishop Guertin High School, earning Telegraph Boys Swimmer of the Year in 2018.

Four years later, Zoda completed an outstanding Northeast 10 Conference career recently with Bentley University.

At the conference championships last month, Zoda helped the Falcons to a second-place finish and for the third time in as many conference championships he earned five golds.

Number 14 came in the 100- yard freestyle as he prevailed by 0.44 seconds over Southern Connecticut’s Franklin Kuhn. His finals time of 45.51 seconds broke his own school record, set during the prelims, by one-hundredth of a second. The mark entering the weekend, 42.72, was set by Zoda in December.

Zoda’s final trip to the top of the podium came after he led Bentley to victory in the 400-free relay. The Falcons were down by .06 seconds when he entered the pool and wound up winning by 1.57 seconds with a 3:04.82.

Zoda started the conference meet with his 11th and 12th career golds, as he swam to victory in the 50- yard freestyle, finishing the finals 0.19 seconds in front of runner-up James Henriques (Saint Rose) with a 20.80. Earlier in the day, he broke his own school record of 20.71, set two years ago, with a 20.64 in the prelims.

Zoda also had a huge final leg in helping Bentley gain gold in the 400 medley relay, the Falcons edging Southern Connecticut by 0.51 seconds. When Zoda entered the pool, his team was trailing by 0.13 seconds.

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FELO LEADS

INDIANA WESLEYAN

Merrimack High School alum Josh Felo ran a leg of the 4×800- meter relay to help Indiana Wesleyan to the NAIA national championship.

IWU captured the event by seven-tenths of a second, with a combined time of 7:33.93, a program record by seven seconds.

Felo is a freshman at IWU.

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LOCALS LEAD RIV MEN’S LAX

Youth is definitely being served by the Rivier University men’s lacrosse team.

The Raiders will begin their season Saturday at Keene State University, and if you’re looking for multi-year experienced players, forget it.

But, if you’re looking for talent and players who got valuable experience in an abbreviated season last spring. with the Raiders reaching the GNAC semis, you’ve come to the right place.

A whopping 16 freshmen joined 13 sophomores and only a couple of juniors for the team’s 18-7 season opening loss at Keene State last weekend.

That’s youth, for certain.

“They’re very energetic, very eager and willing to learn,” Raiders longtime coach Jay Delanoy said, admitting he’s never coached a team with no seniors. “Even though there’s a learning curve from the high school level to the college level, these kids are all about getting done everything they can so we can get where we want to be.

“Hopefully we can make (the youth) an advantage by having younger legs everywhere we go.”

Merrimack’s Jacob Newman, a junior defenseman, is one of the leaders on the team. The Raiders are also taking advantage of the fact lacrosse has certainly moved to being the near dominant spring sport at the high school level, especially with Division I power Bishop Guertin around. Former Cardinal Chris Heitmiller, a midfielder, is among the key freshmen.

Other locals on the Raiders are sophomore middie Zach Gauthier (Nashua South), soph goalie Ryan Palmer (North), and frosh middie Luke Panyanouvong (South).

Last year the Raiders played nine games, including two playoff games and were home for a GNAC playoff game for the second year in a row. They beat Emmanual 11-8 in that game but fell at Norwich 14-6 in the conference semis.

This year, a more normal schedule. And plenty of youth to get time to improve.

“There’s building blocks there, we were young last year with just four seniors. We definitely have the talent; we don’t really have the experience under our belt, but we have a lot of potential we can cash in on, I think.”

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PLENTY OF LOCALS ON

RIV WOMEN’S LAX

The Raiders had just three games last spring, due to the pandemic, all three lopsided losses as coach Maura Ellins had a lot, like all college coaches, to deal with, including limited player availability.

The Raiders dropped their opener last week to Fitchburg State, were slated to take on Thomas College late this week and visit Elms on Saturday afternoon.

The Raiders have a full, healthy roster heading into the season, with several locals: Senior defender Madison Abreu (Nashua North), senior midfielder Tara Saliany (Nashua South), sophomore middie-attack Ashley Wilder of Milford, sophomore midfielder Caitlin Newell (Litchfield/Campbell), junior defender Hayli Ruiter (Hudson/Alvirne), and freshman defender Rose Daddario (Hudson/Bishop Guertin).

Wilder had two unassisted goals in the Raiders’ season opening loss to Fitchburg State.

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BG ALUM MCLENDON

HONORED at babson

Former Bishop Guertin and Nashua Silver Knight pitcher Stephen McLendon, a junior at Babson, was named to D3baseball.com’s Team of the Week.

McLendon had two outstanding relief appearances, recording a pair of saves as Babson opened the season with two wins in a recent three games vs. Trinity of Texas.

He struck out the side to close out a 5-4 win and then two days later retired the side in order on nine pitches in a 4-2 win.

McLendon at last look was 0-1, 3.18 after three appearances, totaling 5.2 innings of work.

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CRANNEY HELPING

UNH lacrosse

Souhegan High School alum Abby Cranney has five goals and two assists at last look for the University of New Hampshire women’s lacrosse team.

Cranney, a senior, is joined by former fellow Sabers Abbey Hawkes (freshman) and junior Izzy Aiello, as well as former Nashua North standout Gabby Masseur, who is playing as a grad student. Masseur also has a goal.