MEET RESULTS – The College of Staten Island men’s and women’s swimming and diving units were able to score a pair of tight wins at Lehman College’s pool on Friday night, gaining ground in the CUNYAC standings respectively.  The CSI men scored a 124-113 win, while the CSI women were victorious in a 122-104 affair.  The men improved to 3-3 overall and a perfect 3-0 in CUNYAC play, while the women improved to 3-5 overall and 3-2 within the CUNYAC.

On the women’s side, the Dolphins scored a win in the 200-yard Medley Relay, and then senior Kelly Walsh followed with a win in the 1,000-yard Freestyle over teammate Caitlin McLoughlin.  That opened up a sizable lead that CSI continued to nurse with another win by Naomi Gaggi in the 200-yard Freestyle, beating Lehman’s Melody Ovalles by just two seconds.

Sophomore Ewa Wojciechowska followed with a win in the 50-yard Freestyle event, and CSI continued to pull further after diving, when McLoughlin and Jessica Shaw finished one-two on the one-meter boards.

Wojciechowska struck again with a tight win over Jessica Reynoso in the 100-yard Freestyle and two events later, it seemed CSI put the meet out of reach with a win by Samantha Escobedo in the 100-yard Backstroke, an event she won by over seven seconds with a time of 1:08.76.  Kelley Walsh added another gold-medal performance in the 500-yard Freestyle, and CSI finished the meet with a win by the team of Escobedo, Gaggi, Walsh, and Wojciechowska in the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, an event they won by over 25 seconds with a time of 1:49.85.

On the men’s side, the meet was tighter from start to finish.  Lehman took a win in the opening relay event, but junior Tim Sweeney continued his perfect run on the season with a win in the 1,000-yard Freestyle with a time of 10:23.65, and Stephen O’Driscoll came in third to put CSI behind by a single point through two events.  

A win by Derek Villa in the 200-yard Freestyle helped put CSI ahead, but Lehman took the lead back after the 50-yard Freestyle and a win by Jeremy Guerra and another win by Anthony Preda in the 200-yard Individual Medley. 

Ayman El Haddad was able to score a win on the one-meter diving boards, but then the meet was tied after the 100-yard Butterfly competition.  After Lehman took the lead in 100-yard Freestyle competition, CSI countered with a big 100-yard Backstroke event.  Sweeney came in first with a great time of 56.47 and Chris Pinto scored a huge second place finish with a time of 1:02.60.  In the very next event, Sweeney scored a 27-second win in the 500-yard Freestyle, and O’Driscoll came in third to open the CSI lead further.

Lehman could not make up ground on the diving boards, and despite a win by Preda in the Breaststroke, CSI was able to take a win in the final event, the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, to make sure the Lightning could come no closer in the very tight meet.

CSI will next be in action in the new year.  They will host York College on January 11 at the Sports & Recreation Center, at 6pm.