After Day One at the Metropolitan Swimming & Diving Championship the College of Staten Island enjoyed a fine day filled with highlights and record-setting performances. The CSI men are placed 9th in a field of 15 teams while the women have yet to place officially. Swimming began with preliminaries in the morning, to determine who will be invited in the evening for Final heats and point-scoring opportunities. There were a total of 12 meet events in all. Below are the results in order of appearance:
– The CSI team of Derek Villa, Jonathan Gorinshteyn, Brandon Lei and Nick Defonte clocked in at 1:35.38 in the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, good for 12th in the prelim heats out of 25 teams. In the evening they swam at 1:30.72, with Timothy Sweeney running anchor, also placing 12th overall in the field.
– In the women’s 500-yard Freestyle, senior Naomi Gaggi raced in at a personal best 5:53.87, good for 31st among 51 swimmers. It beat her previous career best by nearly two seconds.
– In the men’s 200-yard Individual Medley, Gorinshteyn came in at 2:08.68 for 28th place while teammate Lei came in shortly after at 2:15.32 good for 31st amongst 41 swimmers in the event.
– Sweeney next qualified in the 50-yard Freestye in the morning heat, coming in at 21.12, a new school and CUNYAC record. That seeded him sixth in the evening’s finals. There, Sweeney came in at 21.62 which overall placed him 15th among the 24 racers.
– On the Men’s one-meter diving boards, Ayman El Haddad secured an 11th place finish with a season-best 303.25 points in the preliminary.
– Friday’s events concluded with the 400-yard Medley Relay. The men’s unit of Defonte, Lei, Villa, and Gorinshteyn secured a spot in the evening final with a time of 3:50.61. Once in the final, the team of Defonte, Gorinshteyn, Sweeney, and Villa came in at 3:40.06, good for a tie of 10th place.
The Metro Championship continues today with another 16 events.
