Men’s and women’s swimming/diving teams kick off season at MIAA Relays

The Olivet College men's and women's swimming/diving teams kicked off the 2007 season today by participating in the 2007 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Relays at the Holland Aquatic Center.

Of the eight relays, the Olivet men had one first-place, four second-place and three third-place finishes. Results from the diving relays are not available at this time.

The 1500-yard freestyle relay team of Brian Jaffee (Bowling Green, Ohio), Rafe Maxwell (Bay City/Western) and Jason Wheatley (Portage/Central) took first-place in 15:33.37. Taking second-place were the 200-yard medley (1:40.64), 200-yard breaststroke (1:53.10), 500-yard progressive freestyle (4:27.13) and 200-yard butterfly (1:40.35) relays.

The 200 medley team was Kellen Beckwith (Farmington Hills/North Farmington), Yury Bylina (Minsk, Belarus/Minsk Sport), Dustin Meisner (Temperance/Erie Mason) and Brad Voss (Lansing/Holt). The 200 breast team was Bylina, Meisner, Ryan Key (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Prep) and Zach McMunigal (Grand Blanc/Flint Powers Catholic).

The 500 free team consisted of Brian Jaffee, Nathan Busscher (Hamilton/Holland Christian), Sam Jaffee (Bowling Green, Ohio) and Mitch Powers (Kalamazoo/Central). The 200 fly team was Maxwell, McMunigal, Meisner and Koji Takahashi (Etobicoke, Ontario/Silverthorn CI).

The third-place relays were 200-yard backstroke (1:48.38), 400-yard individual medley (4:00.12) and 200-yard freestyle (1:32.26). Swimming on the 200 back were Powers, Takahashi, Brian Johnson (Lansing/Eastern) and Greg Seger (Sterling Heights/Henry Ford II). The 400 IM team was Brian Jaffee, Key, McMunigal and Nathaniel Burchfield (Lansing/Everett). The 200 free team was Beckwith, Johnson, Powers and Voss.

The women's team posted a pair of third-place and fourth-place finishes to go along with one fifth-place finish. Finishing in third was the 200-yard breaststroke (2:19.12) and 200-yard freestyle (1:47.94) teams.

The 200 breast team was Lisa Egelkraut (Battle Creek/Central), Katie Kilmartin (Wayland), Lauren Siedlik (Livonia/Churchill) and Erin Tramper (Jenison). The 200 free team was Sarah Boyd (Napoleon, Ohio), Kalee Redder (Grandville/Jenison), Kelly Schulze (Kalamazoo/Central) and Jackie Taylor (Plainwell).

The 200-yard butterfly (1:57.54) and 1500-yard freestyle (17:16.94) relays brought home fourth-place finishes. Swimming on the 200 fly relay were Redder, Jami Lingbeek (Plainwell), Heather Michalsen (Plymouth/Salem) and Rachel Tunison (Erie/Erie-Mason). The 1500 free team was Boyd, Egelkraut and Tramper.

The 200-yard backstroke relay placed fifth with a time of 2:05.25. The swimmers on that relay were Lingbeek, Michalsen, Taylor and Tunison.

The Comets will open the dual meet portion of their 2007-08 schedule next Saturday, Nov. 3, when they host Kalamazoo College at the Upton Center Pool at 1 p.m.