The College of Staten Island men’s and women’s swimming & diving program took on Sarah Lawrence College at the CSI Sports & Rec Center in a non-conference dual meet this afternoon. The Dolphins as a whole came out victorious 216-166. The men won their meet 126-66 and improved to 4-3 overall while the women fell 90-100 and drop to 3-6 overall.
Staten Island took a 19-13 lead after the Dolphins opened up the meet with the women coming in second in the 400 yard medley relay followed by the men taking the top two spots in the same event. Nicholas Defonte teamed with Brandon Lei, Tommy Gaspar, and Jonathan Gorinshteyn to win the event in 4:09.73. The Dolphins pulled further ahead in the 1000 yard freestyle as no Gryphons took place in that event which gave Staten Island a nice lead.
Tim Sweeney picked up one of his two wins by taking first in the 400 yard IM, giving the Dolphins a 66-20 edge. Brandon Lei and Chris Pinto were second and third in the event, respectively. The women had a slight 47-38 lead at the break after Samantha Escobedo took first in the 50 yard freestyle and Hunter Dawkins placed third in the 400 yard IM.
After the break, the highly anticipated 200 yard butterfly saw Sweeney finish second, the first time this year at home, behind Sarah Lawrence’s Cameron Martinez. Ewa Wojciechowska recorded a time of 57.31 in the 100 yard freestyle to continue the Dolphins’ lead over the Gryphons.
The men continued to dominate the meet as Pinto took first in the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:22.75 which was 31 seconds faster than the rest of the field. Stephen O’Driscoll secured 9 points in the 500 yard free to seal the deal for the Dolphins to give them their fourth win on the year.
The women started to give away points as they lacked in depth and first place finishes. The Gryphons started to overtake the Dolphins and it came down to the last two events, the 200 yard breaststroke and the 400 yard freestyle relay. Dakota Dawkins was the only entrant in this event for the Dolphins and she came in second with a time of 2:41.28 to keep her team alive but without her fellow teammates to pick up points elsewhere the Dolphins dropped some points.
Sarah Lawrence then walked away with the 400 yard freestyle relay with a first place time of 4:37.99 a full 17 seconds ahead of the Dolphins.
The swimming & diving teams are back in action on Thursday, January 21 at the CSI Sports & Rec Center when they will take on Adelphi University in a non-conference dual meet at 5:00 pm.
