Oct. 24, 2009

Complete Results

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - Junior Allie Henges (Cincinnati, Ohio/Purcell Marion) and freshman Brandon Drogemuller (Hollister, Calif./San Benito) each won a pair of races in the Flyers' season opening meet against conference foes Grand Valley State and Hillsdale.

The Grand Valley State women topped Lewis (161-101) and Hillsdale (175-87). The Lewis women defeated Hillsdale (139-123).

The men's contest was between just Lewis and Grand Valley State as Hillsdale doesn't sponsor women's swimming. Grand Valley State topped the Flyers 169-90.

"The women swam a phenomenal meet and we really pushed Grand Valley for the first half until their depth won out," head coach Steve Thompson said. "On the guys side, obviously we're very good in the distance and I thought some of our 200s were better but we have still some areas where we will need to be more competitive."

Lewis freshmen swept the 1000 freestyle races. Orla Power (Greenville, N.C./J.H. Rose) took the women's title in 10:49.37, 10 seconds better than the next competitor. Drogemuller won the men's in 9:30.77. Teammate junior Kevin Coates (Louisville, Ky./Ballard) took second, touching the wall in 9:49.63.

Drogemuller beat out his all-american teammate one more time in the 500 freestyle. Drogemuller took first (4:46.87), Coates was second (4:46.87) and senior Jason Ament (Mokena, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) was third (4:48.09). Ament took second in the 200 freestyle (1:45.45).

Henges won a pair of races for the women. She kicked off her day with a 1:58.14 winning performance in the 200 freestyle. She then took the 200 butterfly title thanks to a 2:11.37 finish.

Teammate freshman Catie Reese (Trafalgar, Ind./Indian Creek) touched the wall in 1:02.24 to take second in the 100 backstroke. She also finished second in the 200 backstroke (2:13.75), missing first by less than half a second. On the men's side, freshman Matt Schmidt (Schererville, Ind./Lake Central) grabbed second in the 200 butterfly (1:56.91).

Senior Adam Olszeski (Houston, Texas/Friendswood) won the 200 backstroke thanks to a 1:55.00 performance. He also took second in the 100 backstroke (54.57) and 200 IM (2:01.06).

Junior Allan Sliva (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) won the 50 freestyle in 22.55 and took second in the 100 freestyle (49.21).

"For a first meet of the season, overall it was a solid start," Thompson said. "We saw some things today which shows that the conference is going to be competitive."

The Flyers are back in the pool on Nov. 7 when Lewis hosts the Illinois Institute of Technology at 11 a.m.