NEWARK, N.J. --- The NJIT men's swimming and diving team completed its season-opening Highlander Invitational Saturday afternoon with a clean sweep of its dual meet matchups. The Highlanders defeated St. Francis Brooklyn 283-60, Manhattan College 268-83, and Saint Peter's 181.50-157.50.

Three different Highlanders picked up victories for the Highlanders on Saturday. Mattheau Bonner won his first event of the year, taking the 100 Fly in 51.98. Joshua Franco's second win of the season came in the 100 Free (46.70) while Nicholas Lyons took his third race by winning the 200 Breast in 2:07.59.

"I am really proud of this team and how they finished this meet," head coach Ron Farina said after the meet. "We had to battle with Saint Peter's and they really stepped up in the clutch.  Nicholas Lyons won three races and our our 100 Fly took three of the top five spots with the meet on the line. "

REWARDS FOR PERFORMANCE
After such a strong start to the season, CollegeSwimming.com ranked NJIT as the 32nd-best Division I Mid-Major team in the nation.

The complete Top 50 rankings can be found here: http://bit.ly/2VDcmAL

100 Fly
Mattheau Bonner: 1st - 51.98
Edward Parks: 2nd - 52.19
Edward Madrigal: 4th - 52.80

200 Breast
Nicholas Lyons: 1st - 2:07.59
Matthew Bevan: 2nd - 2:09.80
Ricardo Vasconcellos: T-5th - 2:15.98

100 Free
Joshua Franco: 1st - 46.70
Edward Parks: 5th - 47.57

200 Back
Jake Nelms: 2nd - 1:57.12
Edward Madrigal: 4th - 2:00.30
Mitchell Malakhov: 5th - 2:00.66

400 IM
Matthew Bevan: 2nd - 4:20.09
Alon Lerner: 3rd - 4:20.23

200 Medley Relay
Edward Madrigal: 2nd - 1:35.73

400 Free Relay
Franco/Parks/Madrigal/Bonner: 2nd - 3:13.44
Malakhov/Lerner/Bevan/Pollock: 3rd - 3:18.04

1 Meter Diving
Cole Becker: 2nd - 191.05

500 Free
Jake Nelms: 3rd - 4:49.30
Daniel Jablonski: 4th - 4:50.06