Piscataway, NJ | The College of Staten Island Men's & Women's Swimming & Diving teams finalized their three-day trek into the Metropolitan Swimming & Diving Championships held at Rutgers University with a 7th-place finish for the men and a 12th-place finish for the women, finishing another exciting day in the pool that saw plenty of highlights and achievements.

A total of six events finished up the final round of competition at Rutgers, beginning with preliminary morning heats and then finals heats in the evening.

The Dolphins made the finals in six races, the men's and women's 1,650-yard Freestyle, 200-yard Breaststroke competition, and the men's and women's 400-yard Freestyle Relay event.

The mile swim did not feature a preliminary, so the CSI contingent saved their one run for the evening's final.  There, on the women's side, Melissa Poggioli turned in a 16th-place performance with a run of 20:28.95.  Right behind her was teammate Cecelia Mauro, who came in at 21:06.07.  In the men's race, Michael Blacharski finished in 19th among the 24 competitors, turning in a fine time of 18:39.92.

Later in the evening came the Breaststroke competition.  In women's competition, Lisnette Solano was able to finalize in 24th place, swimming four seconds faster than she did in prelims, with a run of 2:46.41.  Then, in the men's race, Michael Stora scored an 18th-place finish with a run of 2:11.28, a good three seconds faster than his prelim time.  Tom Smith, who also qualified for the finals heats, came in 23rd with a time of 2:28.48, besting his prelim time by almost two full seconds.

The final event of the evening was the women's 400-yard Freestyle Relay.  For the women, just like they placed overall, they came in 12th among the qualifiers, coming in at 4:00.11 with the foursome of Kathleen Bridgman, Sabella Vaserman, Cecelia Mauro and Gabriella Bartley.  In the men's division, CSI earned their highest faring of the competition, with a 6th-place finish for the foursome of Peter Carle, Sami Jindyeh, Chris Ivanov and Michael Stora, coming in at 3:21.25.

CSI's 7th-place overall tied them for their highest finish ever at the Metro Championships, having also taken 7th during the 2001-02 season.  Rowan University won the event overall with 1,510 points, just 31.5 points ahead of second-place The College of New Jersey, who finished just 33 points ahead of the United States Merchant Marine Academy.  CSI finished with 312 total points.  They placed ahead of CUNYAC-rivals Baruch College, who finished 9th with 284, and ahead of ECC foe Roberts Wesleyan, who placed 13th with 14 points.

On the women's side, Rowan also took the championship with 1,704.5 points, well ahead of TCNJ's 1,523 second-place faring.  Montclair State University placed third with 920.5 points.  CSI finished with 210 points, ahead of Maritime College and future ECC competitors Roberts Wesleyan (210) and Queens College (4).  The CUNYAC saw Hunter College place seventh overall (317) and Baruch placing ninth, with 297.5 points.