College of Staten Island Athletics

Day one of the CUNYAC Swimming & Diving Championships at Lehman College concluded last night, finalizing six events.  The College of Staten Island saw their share of highlights, earning seven gold and one silver medal on both sides of the ledger.  The CSI men stand in third place with 202 points, 62 points behind leaders Baruch College, while the women sit in fifth place with 87 points.

The CSI men may have been lacking in depth, not scoring many positions but sweeping all the first place finishes in incredible fashion.  Diving took center stage first, and CSI frosh John Pignatelli was dynamic on the one-meter boards, scoring 284.15 points, 66 points ahead of Lehman's Victor Pren.  When diving concluded, it was the swimmers turn to steal the show.  CSI was up to the task.

In the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, the team of Yury Zimarev, Timur Rakhimov, Andrey Tarasov, and Danila Novikov finished at an even 1:28.00, a full second and a half better than their own seed time, and just a hair better than the Baruch foursome, that placed just four-one hundredths of a second behind for the silver.  Later, in the 400 Medley Relay, CSI was almost a full eight seconds ahead of the pack, as Vladislav Romanov joined Zimarev, Rakhimov, and Novikov in the relay, coming in at 3:32.92.

On a night when CSI celebrated its six seniors, the Dolphins used a late first-half surge and then rolled from there, defeating visiting Berkeley College (NJ), 104-65, in the Dolphins regular season home finale.  The Dolphins, winners of 10 straight for the sixth time in program history, improved to 17-4 overall, while the Knights fell to 4-13.

Despite the final score, the game was up-for-grabs in what was a see-saw first half.  The teams exchanged nine first half leads and tied the score eight times before CSI used a late first half run to balloon a 51-38 halftime edge.  A quick, 8-4, edge by the visitors would prove to be Berkeley's biggest lead as Andrew Webber connected on two early inside drives.  The Knights nursed a one-point lead, 31-30, at 5:49, before CSI started to catch fire.  A basket by Javon Cox and a three-point play by Jordan Young got the Dolphins started, and after another Young lay-in gave CSI a 6-point lead, CSI would go on a 7-0 run to end the frame, ended with a T.J. Tibbs buzzer-beating three-ball.