Day two of the 2009-2010 CUNYAC championships are now in the books, and after two days of competition, the Lehman College men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are still fighting to keep their dreams of championships alive.
Starting with the men’s side, Baruch College owns the lead currently with 745 points. The Lehman College Lightning are in second place with 601, followed by the College of Staten Island who has 556 points and the York College Cardinals who have 295 points.
A couple of performances of note for the Lightning men included Orlando Urena’s second place finish in the 100 breaststroke for the second straight year to Division III National Champion Pavel Buyanov of Staten Island. In addition, freshman Ivan Srdanovic finished third place in the men’s 200 freestyle in a time of 1:51.47.
Vladislav Romanav, Pavel Buyanov, Joe Lee, and Mohamed Hikal from the College of Staten Island won gold in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:39.21, setting a new CUNYAC championships record. Their effort was three seconds better than the 2008 championships mark set by Lehman College. Baruch finished silver (Gabriel Yanez, Jeffrey Wong, Kenny Kim, Boris Zhabinski) with a time of 1:41.84, while Lehman earned bronze (Ivan Srdanovic, Orlando Urena, Chris Mammano, Shqiprim Shala) with a time of 1:46.23.
In the 400-yard IM, the Borough of Manhattan Community College's Haftom Ambaye broke the championships record with a time of 4:30.91, nine seconds better than CSI's Vadzim Zhgun effort in the 2008 championships. Baruch's Gustavo S. M. Dancourt won the senior college gold with a time of 4:49.34, while teammate Justin Wong finished silver with a 4:51.88 effort. CSI's Hikal won bronze with a 5:22.30. CSI won gold in the 100-yard butterfly, as Nikolay Shevchenko finished at 51.75. Kenny Kim and Zhabinski of Baruch rounded out the medal winners with 52.67 and 55.14 times.
Lee made it two gold medals in a row for CSI, winning the 200-yard freestyle in 1:48.13. Kevin Kim of Baruch won silver at 1:50.11, and Lehman's Srdanovic won bronze with a 1:51.47 effort.CSI's Buyanov made it three-straight - winning gold in the 100-yard breaststroke in 57.91. Lehman's Urena won silver at 1:03.88 and Baruch's Wong won bronze with a time of 1:03.94.
Romanov made it four in a row for CSI, breaking his own championships record set last year in the 100-yard backstroke. His 52.80 performance was almost two seconds better than last year's. BMCC's Ambaye finished second overall at 56.40, while Baruch's Yanez (58.26) and Reyes (1:00.65) won senior college bronze and silver.
Baruch won the 800-yard freestyle relay as Yanez, Ryan Flynn, Camilo Reyes, and Kevin Kim swam to a time of 7:42.26. CSI (Lee, Romanov, Robert Stumpf, Shevchenko) followed, with a time of 7:53.91, while Lehman (Arias, Kreshnik Shala, Mingfan Sun, Joaquin Cruz) won bronze with a time of 8:32.32.
On the women’s side, the Baruch College Bearcats are currently in the lead with 703 points, while the Hunter College Hawks are in second place with 477 points and the Lehman College Lightning are in third with 460. In fourth place is CSI with 363 points, and York (278 points) and John Jay (213 points) round out the standings through day two.
Notable performances for the Lightning included the fifth place women’s 200 Medley Relay team of Luisa Garcia, Jessica Espinal, Basilisa Alonso, and Judy Espinal breaking one of Lehman’s oldest records from 1975 in a time of 2:09.31. Also, it was senior Yudelka Espinal finishing in second place in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 2:14.74 by dropping her own personal record time by more than seven seconds, and finally, the women’s 800 Freestyle Relay team of Tanaka Nyemba, Sylvia Churchill,
Adriana Navarrete, and Joeky Bernat broke the school record by five plus seconds in a time of 10:50.04.
Gigi Garcia, Priscilla Arana, Jia Feng, and Julianna Fricchione from Baruch College won gold in the women's 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:00.62. Their effort set a new CUNYAC championships record, breaking the 2008 mark set by the Bearcats by a half of a second.
Gabriella Villarruel earned gold for the College of Staten Island by winning the 400-yard IM in 5:33.13. Baruch's Tiffany Wong and Stephanie Wong earned silver and gold with times of 5:36.95 and 5:40.96. After winning two relay gold medals yesterday, Baruch's Jessica Penaherrera won her first individual championship gold in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:05.19. Teammate Feng followed with a 1:08.23 effort and CSI's Villarruel won bronze with a 1:09.12.
Baruch's Fricchione won gold in the 200-yard freestyle in record time. Her 2:07.47 time topped the mark set by Claudia Chan from Hunter College in the 2006 championships. Stacey Geoghegan of the Borough of Manhattan Community College finished second with a 2:12.79 effort, while Yudelka Espinal of Lehman College (2:14.74) and Marian Wu of Hunter (2:16.90) won the senior college silver and bronze.
The Bearcats made it three straight victories, as Arana won gold in the 100-yard breaststoke with a time of 1:14.73. Teammate Dorene Chin won silver at 1:15.52, and York College's Sara Pazmino won bronze with a 1:17.76 time.
Hunter's Heather Alvord won gold in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing in 1:03.67. Grace Kim of Baruch finished silver in 1:05.88, while Luisa Garcia of Lehman finished bronze in 1:06.99.
In the 800-yard freestyle, Feng, Wong, Fricchione, and Penaherrera of Baruch won gold with a time of 8:54.59. Hunter (Alvord, Kim Happich, Angela Haskell, Wu) finished silver at 9:16.30, and Lehman (Tanaka Nyemba, Sylvia Churchill, Adriana Navarrete, Joely Bernat) finished gold at 10:45.00 - a new school record.
Day three of the 2009-2010 CUNYAC men’s and women’s swimming and diving championships gets underway Saturday morning at the APEX Aquatics Center at 9:00am.
Story Details contributed from www.cunyathletics.com