The College of Staten Island men’s and women’s swimming and diving squads saw a great end to their competitive seasons this weekend, participating at the annual Metropolitan Swimming & Diving Championships at Rutgers University in Piscataway, NJ, this weekend. The three-day event, which saw CSI swimming against NCAA Division I, II, and III schools, saw the CSI men finish 9th among 18 schools represented, while the women finished 15th overall among 19 schools.
There were plenty of highlights during the three-day tour, a run that featured three broken school records and a pair of medals, not to mention some season-best runs from a litany of Dolphins.
On Friday, freshman Samantha Escobedo got things started by breaking the CSI school record in the 200-yard Individual Medley, coming in at 2:29.09, which was obviously a personal and season-best for her. In the men’s version of the race, CSI junior Danila Novikov earned CSI’s first medal, posting a second-place finish with a wonderful time of 1:51.17. That time as it stands now, is the 10th-fastest in the NCAA Division III this season. Not to be outdone, senior Yury Zimarev placed 14th overall in the 50-yard Freestyle, coming in at 21.27. For Zimarev, it was the fastest time for him in that event all season.
On Saturday, the meet’s biggest day, CSI was right in the thick of it with plenty of action. The women’s 200-yard Medley Relay team of Escobedo, Dakota Dawkins, Kelly Walsh and Naomi Gaggi got off a sensational 2:06.99 time, placing 16th in the field, while the men raced a season best 1:34.96 in the same race, with Tim Sweeney, Timur Rakhimov, Zimarev and Novikov doing the honors. Then, in the 400-yard Individual medley, freshman Tim Sweeney swam a personal-best 4:12.96, just missing a medal with a fourth place finish. Later, in the 100-yard Breaststroke, CSI came in fifth and sixth as Rakhimov and Novikov were neck-and-neck, finishing 56.67 and 56.77 respectively. CSI missed another medal in the 100-yard Butterfly, as Zimarev came in fourth place with a 50.92 mar,
When attention turned to diving, CSI’s April Bartlett placed 6th in three-meter competition, scoring 335.20 points. Her counterpart on the one-meter boards, John Pignatelli earned 8th place with 337.60 points.
On Sunday, Rakhomiv got CSI their second medal of the meet, getting a silver medal in the 200-yard Breaststroke with a time of 2:02.00. That too is the 10th-fastest mark in the nation this year. In 100-yard Freestyle competition, Novikov topped in at 47.26, a season-high for him and good for 18th in the field. CSI finished the meet with the men’s unit of Zimarev, Derek Villa, Sweeney and Novikov grabbing 9th-place with a time of 3:14.42 in the 400-yard Freestyle Relay.
The CSI men finished with 391 points, the most among the four CUNYAC teams in attendance, including NCAA Division II Queens College. Among Division III schools, CSI finished sixth. The College of New Jersey won the meet outright with 1,455 points. On the women’s ledger, CSI tallied 142 points, third among CUNYAC schools behind Baruch College and Queens College and ahead of Hunter College. LIU-Post won the meet with 1,355 points.
