The Lehman College women's swimming and diving team (1-4 Overall, 1-1 CUNYAC) dropped a conference meet, falling to the Hawks of Hunter College (4-2 Overall, 3-0 CUNYAC) by a score of 54-40 Tuesday evening at the Hunter College North Pool in New York, NY.
For the Hawks in the victory, Heather Alvord earned her first win in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing over two seconds, 28.02, ahead of her teammate, sophomore Olga Kovalkova who took second place with a time of 20.60. Later in the meet, she won the 100-yard backstroke, finishing in 1:05.97. Hunter's Adrienne Baldassano took second in that event with a time of 1:14.08. Junior Carla Mendoza had the first individual victory of the day, winning the 1,000 freestyle, 14:48.58, with freshman Alexis Burgos taking second place with a time of 15:47.28. Sophomore Nicole Hracs took first in the 200-yard I.M. with a time of 28.02 and Kovalkova completed the sweep with a 30.60 second place finish. Sophomore Marian Wu also continued her stellar swimming as of late with a 1:04.41 swim in the 100-yard freestyle for first place.
Despite the loss for Lehman, the Lightning did put forth some impressive performances in the pool, another encouraging sign that the women's squad is turning the corner. Standout Luisa Garcia captured the Women's 200 Yard Freestyle, finishing the event with a time of 2:21.80. First-year Lehman sensation Basilisa Alonso, who earned CUNYAC Rookie of the Week honors earlier in the week, won the Women's 100 Yard Butterfly event by completing the competition in a time of 1:11.44. Garcia and Alonso also finished first and second, respectively in the Women's 500 Yard Freestyle. The Lightning also prospered in the Women's 200 Yard Freestyle Relay, as the unit of Garcia, Alonso, Judy Espinal, and Joanne Gonsalves-Barreiro won the competition at 1:59.57. Following the meet, Head Coach Peter Kiernan was impressed with Lehman's effort on the evening.
“Hunter College is an established program, and they were a little bit too strong for us today,” Kiernan said. “We'll regroup and try to come back raring to go for the home meet on Thursday evening.”
The Lehman College women's swimming and diving team will return to action on Thursday evening as the Lightning will take on the Panthers of Adelphi University, with meet-time scheduled for 7:00pm.
