Feb. 2, 2006

ROMEOVILLE, Ill - Lewis University junior Michael Lapustin is one of more than 230 national and international swimmers scheduled to compete in the FINA World Cup this weekend (Feb. 3-4) at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in East Meadow, NY.

Lapustin, representing his home country of Latvia, plans to swim the 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke and 100 IM, short course meters. Earlier this season, Lapustin produced NCAA Division II "B" qualifying times in the 100 (51.39) and 200 backstroke (1:53.42).

Among the field of 230 swimmers will be 10 American and approximately 50 international Olympians, including six-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps. Other U.S. Olympians scheduled to compete include: Margaret Hoelzer, Klete Keller, Rachel Komisarz and Neil Walker.

Phelps, who will be competing at the New York World Cup for the first time since winning five medals (two of them gold) in 2002, will swim his more traditional events, including all three individual medley distances and the 200m freestyle.

The Nassau County Aquatic Center is hosting the World Cup competition for the fifth consecutive year. This short course meet (contested in a 25m pool) is the seventh of eight stops on the 2005-06 World Cup circuit.

The professional swimmer with the highest FINA individual point total for the best performance in the series will win $50,000.

Omega will carry live results from the competition at www.omegatiming.com. In addition, session summaries and other coverage can be found at www.usaswimming.org and www.fina.org.

The meet will be broadcast Feb. 18 at 5 p.m. ET, on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN). Check local listings for times in your area.