ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis' women's swimming team returned to the pool for a competitive dual for the first time in three months and came away with a 106-83 victory over Olivet Nazarene on Friday evening at the Lewis Swimming Pool.
The Flyers (2-1) won nine of 11 events against the Tigers as they won the first nine events of the dual. They were led by senior
Stephanie Palczynski (Warrenville, IL/Wheaton Warrenville South High School), freshmen
Larissa Alves (Panama/) and
Kiara Barnes (Cape Town, South Africa/) and sophomore
Erin Bachmeier (/) as they combined to win all nine events for Lewis with Palczynski and Bachmeier also swimming on the winning 200 medley relay team along with redshirt senior
Ianthe Van Der Westhuizen (Randfontein, South Africa) and junior
Rachel Marsh (Houston, Texas/Mirabeau B. Lamar).
In the first event of the day, Palczynski, Bachmeier, Van Der Westhuizen and Marsh combined to win the 200 medley relay by four seconds in a time of 1:52.77.
Barnes picked up her first event win of the evening in the 1,000 freestyle in a time of 11:15.86 while sophomore
Megan O'Brien (Joliet, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) was second at 11:51.20. Palczynski and Van Der Westhuizen finished first and third in the 200 freestyle with Palczynski winning in a time of 1:59.88 and Van Der Westhuizen finished with a time of 2:03.77.
Bachmeier took the top spot in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.84 seconds. Alves and sophomore
Cetta Senese (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way Central) finished first and fourth in the 200 individual medley with times of 2:13.76 and 2:22.75 respectively. Alves and Van Der Westhuizen went first and third in the 100 butterfly with Alves touching the wall at 1:00.94 and Van Der Westhuizen finished at 1:04.21.
Palczynski picked up the win in the 100 freestyle in a time of 55.18 seconds while Marsh finished fourth at 58.02 seconds. Alves won the 100 backstroke by over two seconds with a time of 1:01.25.
The most exciting race of the dual came in the 500 freestyle as Barnes chased down Carley Logan in the final 25 yards to beat her out by less than 0.2 seconds. Barnes touched the wall at 5:27.64 while Logan finished at 5:27.81.
Lewis is back in action on Friday (Jan. 22) in a dual against Maryville at the Lewis Swimming Pool beginning at 4:30 p.m.
