Feb. 13, 2006

The Lewis University swimming teams are preparing to compete in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) championships, which begin Wednesday, Feb. 15, at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Mich.

The four-day, 42-event meet consists of 28 individual, 10 relay and four diving events divided among men and women competitors from nine GLIAC-member schools. Each individual event is comprised of several preliminaries followed by a final among the top eight finishers from the preliminaries.

Along with crowning the year's top men's and women's team, the GLIAC will also name its Freshman, Athlete and Coach of the Year winners for both the men's and women's conference at this meet.

Last season, the Flyer men's and women's teams both placed fourth at the GLIAC championships, producing four individual conference championships among three swimmers.

Junior Michael Lapustin, who became the first Flyer swimmer in history to earn a GLIAC conference championship with first-place finishes in the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke at last year's meet, is the lone returning conference champion on this season's roster.

Lapustin will attempt to defend his 200 IM title on day two of competition, and he'll look to protect his 100 backstroke championship on day three. On day four, Lapustin will swim for a championship in the 200 backstroke. He has already established NCAA Division II "B" standards in each of those events this season.

On the first day of competition, junior Tristine Schmidt and sophomore Megan Stevenson will represent Lewis in the 1000 freestyle. Adam Brown will swim for Lewis in the men's 1000 freestyle. Brown finished fourth in the final for the same event last season with a time of 9:43.30.

Highlighted by Lapustin's bid to become a back-to-back champion in the 200 IM, day two sees Lewis swimmers in six individual events. Brown, along with freshmen Tim Farmer and Greg Marx, will compete in the 500 freestyle, while freshman Jeff Martin and sophomore Jake Oprondek will race in the 50 freestyle.

For the women on day two, junior Michelle Sliva will join freshmen Mary Jung and Andrea Freisleben in the 500 freestyle. Senior Jenny Byers and sophomore Stephanie White-Olson each qualified in the top 10 for the 200 IM, while Freisleben, junior Trisha Meyerchick and freshmen Britta Pearson and Tracey Kueltzo will all swim in the 50 freestyle.

Lapustin's run in the 100 backstroke is one of nine events that feature Flyer swimmers on day three of competition. O'Leary and junior Jevgenijs Pesins are top-five qualifiers for the 400 IM and 100 butterfly, respectively, while Farmer, Marx and Martin will look for first in the 200 freestyle, an event won by Lewis swimmer Josh Rogers in 2005. In the 100 breaststroke, Lewis will send out Oprondek.

Byers will head out for women's 400 IM, and Jung's top-five qualifying time leads a trio of Flyers who will compete in the 200 freestyle. White-Olson qualified fifth for the 100 breaststroke, joining sophomore Jackie Olivares in that event, while Schmidt, Pearson and Meyerchick aim for strong finishes in the 100 backstroke.

The Flyer women swim in five individual events on day four, led by three Flyers looking to defend former Lewis swimmer Rita Kalmikova's title in the 200 breaststroke. White-Olson provides the Flyers' best chance to make the final for that race, but Byers and Olivares will also swim preliminaries in the event.

On the men's side, Lapustin could be shooting for a third conference championship when he swims in the 200 backstroke. O'Leary is near the top of the field in the 200 breaststroke, and Brown and Pesins should fare well in the 200 butterfly. The Flyer men also have four swimmers competing in the 100 freestyle.

While not a favorite this season, the Flyer men are the defending champions in the 800 freestyle relay, which will be swam on day three.

NMU will post results for each event as they become available at the following link:

http://newsbureau.nmu.edu/wildcats/swim_dive_championship.htm