Full Results
The Lehman College men's and women's swimming and diving teams returned to the pool on Monday evening as the team's competed in their first meets in 2010, taking on the Bearcats of Baruch College in CUNYAC competition at the APEX Aquatics Center. The Lehman men (1-6 Overall, 0-1 CUNYAC) dropped their fifth consecutive meet, as they fell to Baruch (2-5 Overall, 2-1 CUNYAC) by a score of 147-89, while the Lightning women (3-6 Overall, 2-1 CUNYAC) lost to the Bearcats (5-4 Overall, 4-0 CUNYAC) by a score of 144-85.
Despite the loss for the Lehman men, the Lightning did put forth some hearty performances in the water. In the men's 50 yard freestyle, Lehman placed three swimmers in the top four, including Shqiprim Shala who finished in second place at 24.36, Joaquin Cruz who placed third with a time of 24.88, and Luis Arias who claimed fourth place at 24.95. In the men's 200 yard freestyle, Lehman's Marc Alan Lee was almost able to claim first place but was edged by Baruch's Ryan Flynn, with Flynn finishing the event in a time of 1:54.18 compared to Lee's time of 1:54.52.
On the women's side for Lehman College, the surprising Lady Lightning had some tremendous efforts yesterday evening. Standout Luisa Garcia picked up a victory in the 1000 yard freestyle event as she claimed first place with a time of 12:51.26. The Lehman standout also gave Baruch's Grace Kim a run for her money in the 100 yard backstroke, but it was Kim taking that event by finishing that competition in a time of 1:07.21, compared to Garcia's 1:10.10. Finally, it was Nadia Alie finishing in second place in the women's 100 yard breaststroke, as she completed that event in 1:27.58. Following the meet, Lehman College head coach Peter Kiernan gave his thoughts.
“Not only were our swimmers rusty, but the team swam tired after just finishing a stretch in which we swam two workouts daily of high-volume swimming,” Kiernan said. “The purpose of high volume swimming is to get the swimmers bodies ready for even faster and better performances as we prepare for the championship season in three weeks. We've been extremely successful over the years with this formula and I'm confident that we'll get equally great results again this year.”
The Lehman College men's and women's swimming and diving teams will return to the pool on Friday afternoon as the Lightning will battle the Dolphins of the College of Staten Island in CUNYAC competition. Start-time for the meets is scheduled for 1:00pm.
