The College of Staten Island swimming and diving programs only had a single meet last week, but four standouts made an impression, as they were given weekly laurels by the City University of New York Athletic Conference. Nicholas Defonte and Ewa Wojciechowska were named Swimmers of the Week while Adil El Haddad and Jessica Shaw both took Diver of the Week citations.
Defonte is winning his first weekly award of the season after taking Preseason Swimmer of the Year honors. In CSI’s lone meet against Baruch, Defonte was a part of a second-place 200-yard Medley Relay to open the meet, and then proceeded to win two individual races on his own. The first race was the 200-yard Freestyle, where he came in at 1:54.34, almost 10 full seconds ahead of the field. In the shorter 100-yard installment of the Freestyle, Defonte came in at 51.62, winning by less than a second over BC’s Andrew Lubrano, completing his great evening in the pool.
For the season, Defonte is second on the team with 93 points earned. His 11 Top 3 finishes and his six first-place finishes are both tied for second on the team.
No stranger to weekly honors is Adil El Haddad, who took away his third-straight Diver of the Week honor. Adil took second place in one-meter competition against Baruch, missing gold by less than four points. He followed up, however, with a great showing on the three-meter platform, scoring 196.12 points, winning by over 14 points. It was his sixth first-place showing of the season, tied for second on the team. His 66 points earned this year ranks fifth on the team.
On the women’s side, no one was more impressive than Wojciechowska, who picks up her third weekly honor of the season after being tabbed as the CUNYAC Preseason Swimmer of the Year. The senior shined by going a perfect three-for-three in individual events this past week. She started with a fantastic run in the 1,000-yard Freestyle, coming in at 12:00.50, almost a full 50 seconds ahead of the field. One event later, Wojciechowska was right back in the pool for the 200-yard Freestyle, winning again with a time of 2:06.64, three seconds ahead of the crowd. To top off her evening, she shined again in the 100-yard Freestyle with a time of 57.15.
Wojciechowska easily leads the team this year with 137 total points earned, and she has earned 15 Top 3 finishes, including 12 first-place finishes alone.
Rounding out the list of award winners was Shaw, who debuted as a scorer for the first time this season against Baruch. CSI only competed on the one-meter boards, and there, Shaw topped the event with a score of 123.80, her first medal placing this season.
Both swim teams will be back to action for the Drew University Invitational the weekend of December 1-2, in Madison, NJ.
