Oct. 28, 2003

ALLENDALE, Mich. - The Lewis University swimming teams opened their season with a dual meet against Grand Valley State and a relay invitational hosted the next day by the Lakers.

"It was really impressive to see us right off the bat with some very fast swims," said Lewis head coach Jennifer Arndt about her team's performance over the weekend.

Grand Valley State beat the Flyers 131.50-93.50 in the women's dual meet and 124-80 in the men's meet. However, the scores are misleading since GVSU's greater depth proved the difference in the total meet score. Of the 13 total events, Lewis' men claimed six victories while the women posted five wins.

Rita Kalmikova clocked the fastest time of her Lewis career this early in the season with a 2:26.57 that won the 200 breaststroke. The time earned her an NCAA "B-cut."

Event winners for the men included: Matt Petrizzo (200 freestyle, 1:49.48; 200 backstroke, 2:01.74), Josh Rogers (100 freestyle, :49.06), David Borowski (200 breaststroke, 2:36.06) and the 400 freestyle and 400 medley relay teams. Women's event winners were: Tristine Schmidt (200 butterfly, 2:20.15), Brittany Reetz (100 freestyle, :55.64) Leigh Dodd (200 backstroke, 2:17.91) and the 400 medley relay team.

The relay invitational capped a productive weekend for the Flyers as they set two meet records and one school record.

Freshman Michael Lapustin swam the leadoff leg of the 300 backstroke relay and broke the school record in the 100 backstroke with a :53.16. Lapustin teamed with Petrizzo and Jevgenijs Pesins to a record a 2:44.52 in the event and break a 10-year-old meet record by nearly two seconds.

Lewis' women established a new meet standard in the 300 backstroke relay as well. Dodd, Kalmikova and freshman Michelle Sliva covered the distance in 3:09.11 to break the meet record by almost one second. The trio also combined with Jenny Byers to win the 4x100 IM relay (4:21.91), narrowly missing the meet record of 4:21.34.

The men added a second event victory in the 200 freestyle relay; Rogers, Petrizzo, Pesins and Lapustin swam a 1:28.99.

The Flyers will next be in action November 7-8 when they travel to Truman State for the Bulldog Invitational.