The best of the best go to the NCAA Division III Championships. The College of Staten Island sent there three finest swimmers to Minneapolis for the Championships held at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center where the competition proved to be close.
Beginning on Wednesday afternoon, Nikolay Shevchenko and Vlad Romanov took off in the 200 IM preliminaries. Shevchenko placed 23rd with a time of 1:53.75 while Romanov hit at 1:55.44 to take 35th place, both however, did not proceed to the finals. Next up was Pavel Buyanov in the 50 Freestyle prelims where he placed 45th with a time of 21.84 The junior swimmer didn’t make it to the finals by under one second.
Thursday’s competition saw Nikolay Shevchenko finish 32nd in the 100 Butterfly preliminary. The three time championship participant finished with a time of 50.98 but the time was not good enough to make it to the final round. So how tight was the competition? The first place winner completed at a time of 47.58, that’s just about 3 seconds between the 1st and 32nd spot!
Friday’s competition started with 200 Butterfly preliminary swim for Shevchenko. He placed 17th with a time of 1:53.19. Again, Shevchenko’s time was not enough to make it to the finals. Next up, was Vlad Romanov in the 200 Backstroke prelim where he finished in 16th place with a time of 50.83. Though he didn’t make it to the championship round he broke his own CSI school record. Buyanov followed in the 100 Breaststroke prelim finishing 7th with a time of 56.19 and qualifying himself for the finals. Despite his fine performance, Buyanov was not able to defend his championship title, finishing 4th in the finals with a time of 55.27. The first place winner completed with a time of 54.70. Buyanov still holds the record in the all time100 Yard Breaststroke record with a time of 54.27 set last season.
On the last day of swim, Romanov took flight in the 200 Backstroke prelim swim where he placed 8th with a time of 1:49.57, capturing a spot in the championship round later that day. In the 200 Breaststroke preliminaries, Buyanov touched in at 2:03.54 ranking 11th and for the second time this trip, advancing to the finals. Prepared for his first final showing, Romanov sped to 8th place with a time of 1:50.62. Buyanov completed the 200 Breaststroke consolation finals in a 9th place completion with a time of 2:01.51.
As a three man team, the College of Staten Island finished with 38 points placing them in 21st place out of 61 teams.