Full Results
The Lehman College men's and women's swimming and diving teams began their seasons this past Saturday afternoon by competing in non-conference meets against the Manhattan College Jaspers. The Lightning's men's unit, who enter the 2009-2010 as the four-time defending CUNYAC champions, fell to the Jaspers by a score of 121-79, while a new-look women's unit – consisting of only five returning swimmers and a slew of hungry newcomers – dropped their meet by a score of 97-83.
Despite the loss for the women, the Lighting put forth a great effort. In the women's 100 butterfly event, veteran Basilisa Alonso put forth a terrific performance by finishing with a time of 1:18.66. Teammate Adriana Navarrete finished second behind her in that event by clocking in at 1:41.77, and Jessica Drenzyk of Lehman came in third at 1:50.36. Judy Espinal completed the 100 yard freestyle in 1:03.19, and Nyemba finished first in the 500 yard freestyle by clocking in at 7:27.63. Finally, it was Lehman's 200 yard freestyle relay unit of Susana Ramirez, Nyemba, Drenzkyk, and Sylvia Churchill finishing in first place in that event by finishing at a time of 2:14.35.
On the men's side, there were a few standout performances despite the defeat. Newcomers Marc Alan Lee finished first in the 100 yard butterfly by completing that event in 1:00.48. Teammate Diorvic Gonzalez finished second behind him at 1:09.86 with Cristobal Vargas coming in third place at 1:21.94. Also, it was Luis Arias won the men's 500 yard freestyle event by completing that competition in a time of 6:14.25 (Matthew Martinez came in second place at 7:08.89). Following the meet, Head Coach Peter Kiernan gave his thoughts on he felt competing against a team the caliber of Manhattan College is beneficial to both his men and women's units.
“We swim meets against opponents like this to gauge our performance level and prepare for the conference season ahead,” Kiernan said. “It's great to swim against a team like Manhattan College, because geographically they're only a few miles away, and competitively, we're swimming against a strong program so it makes us push ourselves extremely hard. This meet will allow us to get on track and focused for the task at hand – and that task is to become technically sound swimmers.”
Lehman's men's and women's swimming and diving units will return to action on Thursday evening, November 5th, as the squads will travel to Pleasantville, NY to battle Pace University in non-conference competition. The time of the meet will be 6:30pm.
