CUNYAC All Stars have been announced for swimming and diving and the College of Staten Island has made a huge mark on the list. Senior Vladislav Romanov has captured Swimmer of the Year while Timur Rahkimov has been named Rookie of the Year. Andrey Tarasov, Yury Zimarev, Danila Novikov and John Pignatelli have been named to the men’s All Star team while Stephanie Collyer was named to the women’s team.
Romanov, who won CUNYAC Rookie of the Year, captured two Swimmer of the Week awards and was also named CUNYAC’s Scholar Athlete of the Month for December, closed out his conference year on a high for the Dolphins. The senior received seven gold medals which included the 500 yard freestyle at 4:49.17, 400 yard medley relay at 3:32.92, 200 yard medley relay at 1:36.41 and 200 yard backstroke at 1:53.23. The senior also set three new meet records in the 100 yard backstroke at 52.52, 800 yard medley relay at 7:10.77, and 400 yard freestyle at 3:14.22. His career is not over at CSI as he will compete in the Metro’s this month and the NCAA Division III Championship in March.
Freshman Rakhimov, who also captured a Rookie of the Week nod, has been a huge part of the Dolphins success this season. Rakhimov was part of the 200 yard freestyle relay, 400 yard medley relay, 200 yard medley relay and 800 yard freestyle relay which all collected gold medals for CSI. He earned two individual gold medals in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 58.63, and 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:07.70 and got a second place finish in the 500 yard freestyle touching in at 4:59.60. Rakhimov helped his team to a 6th place finish in the ECAC Open during the season while qualifying for the Nationals in the 200 breaststroke.
Zimarev, Novikov and Tarasov all captured seven golden wins apiece; sweeping every event they were in, at the CUNYAC Championships for the Dolphins.
Stephanie Collyer took first in the 1M and 3M dive at the Championships while also finishing first throughout the year in her diving events.
For the men, Head Coach Charles Lampasso from Baruch is tabbed as Coach of the Year while Lehman’s Chris Polanco received the Sportsmanship Award. On the women’s side, Julia Sung from Baruch was named the Athlete of the Year and Hunter’s Chryzl Goco as the Rookie of the Year. John Jay’s head coach Jessica Kolachovsky was selected as Coach of the Year while her athlete, Billie Jean Kuppler was awarded the Sportsmanship Award.
