New York, NY | In what was the opening conference match for the men’s team, and a change to break an early-season skid for the women, the College of Staten Island men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams could not get the job done tonight, falling to Baruch College. The CSI women fell by a score of 107-52, while the Bearcats were victorious over the men’s team, 117-86. The CSI men fell to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in the CUNYAC, while the women fell to 0-4, 0-2, respectively.
On the women’s side, Baruch was dominating, and started to concede points once the meet was in hand. Before that, Cecelia Mauro took a third place finish in the 800-meter Freestyle, with Lisnette Solano doing the same in the 200-meter Individual Medley.
Alicia Defonte scored a bronze finish in the backstroke event, while Mauro took another third-place medal in the 400-meter Freestyle.
In the men’s race, the meet was a lot tighter with both teams jockeying for position. Alex Semchenko set the tone early with a win over the 800-meter Freestyle with a time of 10:15.31, winning the event by almost 20 seconds. Later, CSI would sweep the first two positions in the 50-meter Freestyle with Khaled Hammam scoring a 25.76 time, and Pete Carle not far back at 26.95.
From there, Baruch won three events before Hammam spoiled the run with a 59.58 win in the 100-meter Freestyle, winning by less than half of a second. Michael Stora picked up a gold as well in the 100-meter Breaststrike with a time of 1:13.91. In the final event the team of Hassan, Carle, Semchenko, and Hammam took first in the 200-meter Freestyle Relay, winning by less tha two seconds.
CSI will now have off before their home opener on Friday, December 7, at 6pm, against Lehman College.
