Lewis University

Lewis' Drogemuller wins the 1650 freestyle GLIAC Championship

Big swim win: Junior Brandon Drogemuller won the 1650 freestyle championship at the 2012 GLIAC Championships on Saturday. | Photo by Steve Woltmann

JENISON, Mich. - Lewis junior Brandon Drogemuller (Hollister, Calif./San Benito) won the 1650 freestyle championship at the 2012 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday (Feb. 11) thanks to an NCAA B time of 15:47.71. Saturday was the final day of the four-day swimming championships.

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Freshman Edwin Welsh (Madison, Miss./Galena) turned in a time of 16:27.64 to finish seventh in the 1650.

"It was a great mile with Brandon winning and Edwin placing," Lewis head coach Roger Karns said.

Drogemuller's mastery of the 1650 comes on the heels of former Flyer Kevin Coates winning the GLIAC title in three of his four seasons. Now Lewis has won four of the last five 1650 championships.

Freshman Tyson Polack (Canby, Ore./Canby) had an NCAA B time of 1:53.14 in the 200 backstroke, good for 10th place.

In the 200 breaststroke, freshman Peter Holanda (Berwyn, Ill./Morton West) finished 14th (2:11.62) and freshman Brandon Busch (East Moline, Ill./United Township) finished 15th (2:12.81).

Another pair of Flyers placed in the consolation finals in the 200 butterfly. Sophomore Julio Rodriguez (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick) took 14th (2:05.03). Sophomore Vasya Semenov (Windsor, Ontario/Vincent Massey Secondary/Delta State) finished 16th (2:06.95).

"The goal for both sides was to score more points than last year," Karns said. "We ended up having a few injuries on the women's side so we didn't meet that goal but the men did. We had great chemistry all week and never stopped supporting each other. All around it was a good meet."

Lewis finished in fifth place with 283 points.