Oct. 24, 2005

Friday Results

Saturday Results

FINDLAY, Ohio - Lewis University first-year head swimming coach Steve Thompson saw several positive signs in his team's opening weekend of competition at the University of Findlay.

Friday, the Flyer women and men registered decisive victories over Findlay in a dual relay meet. Lewis won the women's competition 130-66 and captured the men's meet 114-70.

In Saturday's double-dual against Findlay and Ashland, the Flyer men topped Ashland 69-26 and Findlay 59-45, while the Lewis women were edged 50-49 by Findlay and fell 61-33 to Ashland.

"We won 18 of 20 events in Friday's relay meet," Thompson said. "It was a different type of format, but it was valuable because it gave our swimmers a chance to compete in multiple events in a relaxed environment and gave me a chance to evaluate them against one of the schools in our conference."

Junior Michael Lapustin provided the primary Flyer highlight Saturday. Lapustin, leading off the 400 medley relay, posted an NCAA Division II B-cut time of :52.62 in the 100 backstroke. Lewis won the event with a 3:41.52 clocking.

Sophomore Adam Brown captured victories in the 500 freestyle (5:00.02) and 1000 freestyle (10:11.15). Joining him in the winner's circle were Lapustin in the 200 backstroke (1:59.20), freshman Jeff Martin in the 100 freestyle (50.77), junior Steve O'Leary in the 200 breaststroke (2:17.96), and the 400 freestyle relay team of freshman Gregory Marx, Lapustin, sophomore Jake Oprondek and freshman Tim Farmer (3:20.48).

"Our men's team was dominant," Thompson said. "We're small in numbers, but we have good depth in every event."

Sophomore Stephanie White-Olson and freshman Mary Jung led the Flyer women, winning decisive victories in the 200 breaststroke (2:33.40) and 500 freestyle (5:22.07), respectively. White-Olson won by 12 seconds and Jung won by 11 seconds.

"Stephanie and Mary turned in impressive efforts," Thompson said. "Mary is very versatile. I think she'll challenge several school records this season, with the 500 free certainly being one of them.

"We'll use these early meets to see what works best for the women's team," Thompson added. "Once we get everyone settled into what they do best, we'll be a strong team."

Thompson was pleased with the overall tone of the opening weekend.

"We had some really good performances," he said. "It was good for me to see how our swimmers translated their practice performances to meet performances.

"Our athletes are still adapting to a new training style and different expectations. Once they become more accustomed to those things, I believe we'll have a good season."