The College of Staten Island men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams fell in their final meet before the CUNYAC Championships, taking a dual meet loss to SUNY-Old Westbury at the Sports & Recreation Center. The CSI men dropped a 103-57 decision, while CSI lost an early lead, falling by a slimmer, 93-74, margin. The CSI men fell to 3-5, while the women fell to 2-7.
The CSI women led after six events, but a great showing by the Panthers in the final five events was the difference, as the visitors took first place finishes in four of the final five races. After Lauren Overeem, Stephanie Collyer, Vasiliki Stergioula, and Natasha Caicedo struck first in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 2:28.61, CSI got back-to-back wins in the next events. First, Caicedo did the honors in the 1000 Freesyle, winning by over a minute, and then Shannon McCormick gave CSI their biggest lead, 29-12, with a 2:41.30 showing in the 200 Freestyle.
CSI lost the next three races, but still held a slim, 44-42, edge after second place showings in back-to-back events by Overeem and Caicedo. Beginning with the 100 Butterfly, however, Old Westbury took the lead, 56-49, and never looked back.
Despite the loss, CSI could feel good about the faring, having not scored in a number of events due to exhibition status and also getting disqualified in another two races as well.
Over on the men’s side, the Dolphins trailed from start to finish, despite winning four events. Danila Novikov and Andrey Tarasov placed first and second in the 200 Individual Medley, and three events later, Tarasov won the 100 Freestyle amongst a field of eight swimmers by a full six seconds. Novikov added gold in the 100 Backstroke, while Timur Rakhimov finished tops in the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 59.37.
Next up for both CSI teams is the CUNYAC Championship Meet, which takes place the weekend of February 2-4 at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York.
