Newburgh, NY | The College of Staten Island men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened up their 2018-19 campaigns this afternoon, traveling to face Mount Saint Mary College as part of non-conference play. In a meet that came right down to the wire, the CSI men tallied a 102-94 win, while the MSM women prevailed in their half of the meet, 124-46.
On the men’s side, the meet went back and forth. Ibraham Hassan scored the first gold medal of the season in an 11:53.13 run in the 1,000 yard Freestyle, followed by a strong run from Leo Litovsky. Later, Alex Semchenko added a win in the 200-yard Freestyle with a time of 2:01.84, winning by almost four seconds. Khaled Hammam was next to strike gold, doing it in the 100-yard Freestyle with a 52.41 time that won by less than a tenth of a second.
CSI then got big points by placing one-two in the 500-yard Freestyle, with Semchenko placing first with a run of 5:33.22, followed by Hassan’s time of 5:44.94. Still, CSI was only up 91-90 going into the last event, the 400-yard Freestyle Relay. The CSI team of Michael Blacharski, Hassan, Sami Jindyeh and Litovsky would have to win the event to give CSI the win in the meet, and they delivered. CSI fell behind after the first leg, but slowly gained ground until they came in at 3:45.00, just two seconds better than the Knights’ foursome, giving CSI the dramatic win.
On the women’s side, the smaller CSI side proved little match for the powerful Knights. CSI scored their first gold-place finish on the season when Gabriella Bartley placed a time of 1:07.78 in the 100-yard Freestyle, beating MSM’s Megan Prendergast wby just over three-tenths of a second. Bartley would add a silver in the 50-yard Freestyle, while Lisnette Solano placed second in the 100-yard Breaststroke with a time of 1:25.28.
CSI will be back in action next Saturday, November 10, when they take to the road again to take on the College of New Rochelle. Meet time is slated for both teams at 2:00 pm.
