College of Staten Island’s men’s swim team has a lot to be proud of after this weekend’s ECAC Open at the University of Pittsburgh. Five of CSI’s finest swimmers combined for a 7th place finish ahead of 10 Division I teams including Seton Hall, Iona and Dartmouth.
 
After five events on Friday evening, CSI went into day two of the Open ranked sixth with a score of 83.
 
Vlad Romanov, Pavel Buyanov, Danila Novikov and Nikolay Shevchenko started the day off on well finishing third in the 200 Medley Relay with a final time of 1:33.09. The same team members broke their own school record by 2 full seconds. The finish helped CSI to an overall 5th place rank.
 
Next up was 400 IM for freshman star Novikov. He finished third with a time of 4:00.24, three seconds better than his preliminary time. His time broke a CSI school record, his second in the ECAC Open, by 10 seconds that was previously held by Shevchenko.
 
Swimming in his final Open, Buyanov followed with a 56.12 time and a second place “A” finish in the 100 Breaststroke. Romanov closed out Saturday’s events for CSI with a fourth place finish in the 100 Yard Backstroke with a time of 51.19.
 
The Dolphins completed the day in seventh place with 167 points.
 
On the last day of the Open, it was Romanov who started it off for CSI with a 6th place finish in the 200 Yard Backstroke with a time of 1:51.53.
 
Novikov qualified for the “B” finals after a 47.87 preliminary time. His “B” final time was bettered by 84 milliseconds, enough for a 12th place finish.
 
In the final event for CSI, Buyanov swam to a 2:02.41 time, good enough for second place. St. Peter’s Lovro Bilonic captured first and burst Buyanov’s 2009 record of 2:00.58 with a new time of 1:58.69. Also swimming the 200 Breaststroke was first year swimmer Andrey Tarasov. He touched in with a time of 2:04.19 for a 5th place finish.
 
CSI finished in seventh place overall ahead of Division I St. Peter’s, UMBC, Seton Hall, Bucknell, Iona, University of Pittsburgh, Niagara College, Manhattan College, West Virginia and Dartmouth.
 
The Dolphins times broke five school records and have qualified them for a trip to the NCAA Division III Championships in March.
 
“I am very happy about the team’s performance this weekend,” says Head Coach Oleg Soloviev. “They knew what they needed to qualify for the a chance in the NCAA’s and they worked hard for it.”
 
As CSI’s only head coach in history, Soloviev gives us a little bit about each of his swimmers: “Danila has a possibility to stun people at the NCAA’s. Pavel has not sung his last song yet, he’s got more to give before his college career is done. Vlad was recovering from being sick last week and gave more than we thought he could so we know how bad he wants to be part of the NCAA’s. Andrey is determined; he is improving day by day and hour by hour. Our team leader Nikolay will serve us well in the relay events.”

Coming in first place was the Naval Academy with a score of 765.5, second place was Boston College with a score of 377, third place was the United State Military with a score of 336.5, fourth place was Rider University with a score of 324, fifth place was Columbia University with a score of 308.5 and sixth place was Marist college with a score of 307.5.