The College of Staten Island men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams continue to represent well on Saturday, as the Metropolitan Championships held at Rutgers University continued. After a total of 28 events, the CSI men stand in 9th place among 16 teams while the women are in 15th position. The championship finalizes on Sunday with 14 events. Below are the highlights in order in Day Two for the Dolphins:
– The men participated in the 200-yard Medley Relay to kick things off, and the foursome of Chris Pinto, Jonathan Gorinshteyn, Omar Zaky, and Derek Villa were able to secure a trip to the finals with a 1:47.65 run, good for 13th place overall. Later in the evening, CSI jumped up to 10th place with a time of 1:41.05, this time going with Zaky, Gorinshteyn, Timothy Sweeney and Villa.
– Next up was the 100-yard Butterfly and there, Sweeney scored the highlight of the Championship for CSI. In preliminaries, Sweeney posted a time of 49.60, good for second overall in the field and putting him in the finals in the evening. There, Sweeney improved on his time, racing in at 49.04, good for a a new CSI and CUNYAC record and an NCAA B-cut. It was good for a silver medal as well, placing second overall.
– In the 200-yard Freestyle, Ewa Wojciechowska was the first Dolphins on the women’s side to qualify for an evening final, posting a 19th-place finish, with a time of 2:01.77 in the preliminaries. Wojciechowska then bounced up two spots in the evening with a time of 1:58.20, a new CSI and CUNYAC record. On the men’s side, Derek Villa posted a 1:49.13 time in the same event, good for 28th place in preliminaries.
– Next up was the 100-yard Breaststroke and Gorinshteyn was able to make qualifications with a time of 1:03.53. In the Final evening heats, Gorinshteyn came in at 1:02.71, good for 23rd in the field overall.
– In 100-yard Backstroke competition, Alicia Defonte put in a time of 1:06.29, good for 29th in prelims while Nick Defonte scored a 55.78 time and trip to the final heats. Defonte then went 55.67 in the evening which placed him 18th overall.
– Finally, in the 800-yard Free Relay, the men’s unit of Sweeney, Zaky, Defonte, and Villa topped out at 7:23.04, good for an 8th place finish overall.
