It was a successful evening in the pool for the Lehman College swimming and diving teams as both units traveled to York College to battle the Cardinals in CUNYAC competition. Lehman’s women’s squad took care of business and clinched second place in the conference standings for the 2009-2010 season with a 116-84 victory over the Cardinals, while the Lightning men snapped a six-meet losing streak with an impressive 96-76 triumph over York.
On the women’s side, the Lightning were steady and consistent throughout the evening, capturing first place in eight of the 11 events contested. Veterans Luisa Garcia and Judy Espinal again were the top winners for the Lightning as each standout won two individual events while both were members of the victorious 200 medley relay team. The victory for the Lightning was Lehman’s fifth in their last seven meets, and the team seems poised for a run at a CUNYAC title.
For the Lehman men, the Lightning were led by double winners Chris Mammano and Ivan Srdanovic in the victory, while Vincent Subervi, Shqiprim Shala, and Luis Arias also picked up a victory each. Lehman also was victorious in both relay events. The victory was a big one for the Lightning who were hoping to stop their losing skid and start gaining some momentum as we grow closer to the CUNYAC championships. Following the meets, Lehman head coach Peter Kiernan gave his thoughts.
“At this point of the season – two weeks away from the CUNYAC championship meets - our focus is to qualify swimmers and divers for the championships and to
sharpen our race stroke techniques,” Kiernan said. “We also want to work on individual race strategies, and prepare mentally for peak performance, because we know that there are going to be some hungry teams that we’ll be competing against for the titles. I’m very proud of the way we performed tonight, and hopefully we’ll see an equally as impressive performance against BMCC tomorrow.”
The Lehman College men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams return to the pool on Wednesday afternoon as the teams battle BMCC in a dual meet at the APEX Aquatics Center. Start-time is scheduled for 4:00pm.