In their final meet of the 2016 year, both the College of Staten Island men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams scored high marks over visiting Lehman College in what was a CUNYAC meet at the Sports & Recreation Center on Friday evening. The CSI men prevailed by a 154-74 count, while the women were victorious by a 128-91 count. It was the Lightning’s first conference meet of the year. Meanwhile the CSI men improved to 4-1 overall and a perfect 3-0 in conference play, while the women moved to 3-4 overall and 3-2 in CUNYAC action.
On the women’s side, Lehman got ahead early via a win in the 200-yard Medley Relay, but CSI responded nicely with a win by Olivia Brown in the 1,000-yard Freestyle event with a time of 15:27.14 to close the gap. Naomi Gaggi followed with a win by nearly a minute in the 200-yard Freestyle, topping in at 2:13.30. The Dolphins kept the win streak going when Victoria Crea earned gold with a 26.79 run in the 50-yard installment of the Freestyle, giving CSI a comfortable lead it would never relinquish.
Ewa Wojciechowska continued the nice run with a convincing win in the 200-yard Individual Medley with a time of 2:25.23, winning the event by over 70 seconds. Nouran Abualam doubled the effort when it came to the diving boards, besting the field with a score of 148.87 on the one-meter board. Abualam would go on to cruise to a win in the three-meter platform as well. Crea and Wojciechowska would go on to post wins in the 100-yard Butterfly and the 100-yard Freestyle respectively and shortly after, freshman Alicia Defonte blazed in to a 1;!0.88 finish in the 100-yard Backstroke.
To top off the individual honors, CSI’s Gaggi earned a win in the 500-yard Freestyle by almost a full three minutes with a time of 5:58.32, and she would lead the 200-yartd Freestyle Relay to a win as well, teaming up with Jessica Shaw, Defonte, and Wojciechowska.
The CSI won their side of the meet in rather convincing fashion, leading almost wire-to-wire the entire way. Senior ace Timothy Sweeney continued his dominating run with a pair of CSI pool records in the 1,000-yard and the 500-yard Freestyle events. He posted a convincing 10:30.40 run in the 1,000, almost a full five-minutes ahead of the field. In the 500 which came later in the program, Sweeney came in at 4:56.18.
Sweeney had plenty of assistance. Fellow senior Derek Villa posted an early win in the 200-yard Freestyle with a time of 1:51.03 and we would add another victory in the 100-yard installment with a time of 49.95. Sophomore Jonathan Gorinshteyn had a fine evening, scoring gold in the 200-yard Individual Medley with a time of 2:15.75, and the 100-yard Breaststroke with a time of 1:06.96. Nicholas Defonte was equally up to the task with wins in the 50-yard Freestyle at 23.28 and the 100-yarde Backstroke with a run of 59.15.
CSI also dominated the boards. Jude Nicholson led the field on the one-meter platform with a 189.75, while Adil El Haddad took second place. On the three-meter plank, Ayman El Haddad shined with a terrific score of 208.95, followed by Nicholson’s third place finish. The Dolphins ended the evening with a first place run in the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, as Defonte, Villa, Youssef Aly and Omar Zaky earned a time of 1:35.21, winning by almost a full minute.
