The College of Staten Island women’s swimming and diving units are off to a big start at the 2015 CUNYAC Championship at Lehman College after day one of competition, firing out to a second place standing and decimating the record books to the tune of six new school and/or CUNYAC records in the process.  After six events, Hunter College leads the way with 206 points, followed by CSI’s 176, and Baruch College’s 147.

The day started with diving on the three-meter boards, and CSI placed one-two with Stephanie Collyer and Tina Chen.  Collyer finished with 193.45 points, which broke her 2014 CUNYAC record by over 14 points and giving her the gold.  Chen finished at 165.10, good enough for silver and another 13 points for CSI.

Swimming then took center stage and the Dolphins were nothing short of phenomenal.  In the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, CSI struck gold, coming in at 1:44.48, shaving off nearly eight seconds of seed time with Samantha Escobedo, Dakota Dawkins, Victoria Crea, and Ewa Wojciechowska doing the honors.  The time was a new CSI record and just three seconds shy of the CUNYAC record.

Next up was individual races, and with every one came more broken records.  In the 500-yard Freestyle, Wojciechowska cruised to a 28 second win with a time of 5:25.78, a new CSI and CUNYAC record, breaking the previous CUNYAC best by almost 9 seconds.  Kelly Walsh and Hunter Dawkins placed seventh and eighth in the event as well.  

Next up, Dakota Dawkins claimed a bronze medal in the 200-yard Individual Medley, but her time of 2:25.16 broke her old school record by almost four seconds.  Next up, in the 50-yard Freestyle CSI came in one-two with Crea winning the event with a time of 25.77, a new CSI record and just missing the CUNYAC record by less than a second, and Escobedo took second with a time of 26.52.

Finally, it was relay time again, and CSI was up for the challenge, taking silver in the 400-yard Medley Relay with Escobedo, Dawkins, Wojciechowska, and Naomi Gaggi flying in at 4:16.65, shaving off 20 seconds off CSI’s previous best time this season, and setting a new school record in that event in the process.

All told, CSI is positioned well for das two and three on Saturday and Sunday, and although they expected to break records at this year’s championship, CSI is certainly out-performing expectations and will look to continue the feverish pace into tomorrow.