Dec. 8, 2003

OXFORD, Ohio - The Lewis University swimming teams clocked seven school records and 11 NCAA qualifying times at the Miami (OH) Invitational.

The Flyers attained automatic qualifying times (A-cut) in three events and provisional times (B-cut) in eight events. In addition, every member of the team recorded at least one personal best time.

Senior Rita Kalmikova led the team with A-cuts in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and a B-cut in the 200 individual medley. She was also a member of the 400 medley relay team that smashed the school record by three seconds.

Junior Brittany Reetz recorded her best times of the season with B-cuts in the 50 (24.54) and 100 (53.83) freestyles.

Sophomore Leigh Dodd broke Lewis' oldest school record with a 59.94 100 backstroke that led off the 400 medley relay. Dodd's time breaks the old record of 1:01.34 set Feb. 19, 2000 by Shannon Gardner and gives her an NCAA B-cut.

Freshman Tristine Schmidt clocked a 1:57.83 for a B-cut in the 200 freestyle, while fellow freshman Michelle Sliva set the school record in the 100 butterfly with a 1:00.44.

Junior Josh Rogers and freshman Michael Lapustin paced the men's squad. Rogers swam a 21.25 B-cut time in the 50 free that earned him third place. His 21.38 in the preliminaries qualified him as the top seed in the event final. Lapsutin recorded an A-cut and school record in the 100 backstroke (51.38) to earn the top seed in the event final. He also had a B-cut in the 50 free (21.16) as he won the B-final. Had he qualified for the A-final, his time would have placed him second overall.

The Flyers finished seventh out of 11 schools on the women's side and eighth out of eight on the men's side. However, the teams did not swim the event finals on Sunday night and consequently didn't record any team points because final exams began on Monday, December 8 and head coach Jennifer Arndt preferred to return home at a reasonable hour. Included in the field were Miami (OH), Indiana University, Johns Hopkins, University of Cincinnati and NCAA Division III power Kenyon.

Highlights of the team's performances are listed below:

Rita Kalmikova -2:09.11, 200 IM, B-cut; 1:05.40, 100 breaststroke, A-cut; 2:23.15, 200 breaststroke, A-cut (top seed in final)

Brittany Reetz -24.54, 50 free, B-cut; 53.83, 100 free, B-cut

Leigh Dodd -59.94, 100 back, B-cut, lead-off 400 medley; 1:59.66, 200 free, personal best

Michelle Sliva -1:00.44, 100 butterfly, school record; 4:46.82, 400 IM, personal best

Tristine Schmidt -1:57.83, 200 free, B-cut; 18:30.94, 1650 free, personal best time by 28 seconds

Staci Neuman -2:37.83, 200 breststroke, personal best time by nine seconds; 1:11.76, 100 breaststroke, personal best

Tracey Drzal -1:02.41, 100 butterfly, best time in a year and a half

Josh Rogers -21.25, 50 free, B-cut (top seed in final, 3rd overall); 1:44.40, 200 free, B-cut

Michael Lapustin -21.16, 50 free, B-cut (1st B-final, 2nd fastest overall); 51.38, 100 back, A-cut, school record (top seed in finals, placed third)

Jevgenijs Pesins -1:59.85, 200 butterfly, personal best; 52.04, 100 butterfly, personal best

Alex Pepke -22.71, 50 free, personal best by one second; 51.13, 100 free, personal best by one second

Women's 400 medley relay (Dodd, Kalmikova, Sliva, Reetz)--3:57.84, school record, 5th place, broke record by 3 seconds.

Men's 400 medley relay (Lapustin, Borowski, Pesins, Rogers)-3:35.74, broke school record by 2 seconds.

Men's 200 medley relay (Lapustin, Petrizzo, Pesins, Rogers)-1:37.15, school record

Men's 400 freestyle relay (Petrizzo, Pesins, Lapustin, Rogers)-3:10.01, school record