Each Friday, the Alaska Nanooks will be publishing blog posts from one or more newcomers from each of Alaska's 10 varsity sports throughout their preseason. More sports will join the blog following their first official practice.

Cross Country
By: Logan Mowry (Fr. | Fairbanks, Alaska)

"'Tickey tockey, tickey tockey, Nooks! Nooks! Nooks!' The Blue and Gold race last Friday was fast and spirited to kick-off the cross country season. While rolling up and down the UAF trails, blue paint running down our faces, the Nanooks battled one another to make for an epic race. Being a 5km race, it was a lot shorter than what most of us are used to but we all dug down deep and ran some fast races!

Carl Wahlin won the MVP of the race for going so hard, he ended up pulling over and vomiting one kilometer out from the finish! However, whether or not there was vomiting, the race got all the Nooks pumped up for the rest of the racing season.

So stay tuned because the interior is full of PR-hungry Nanooks ready to take some names in the next two months of racing!"

Swimming
By: Hannah James (Fr. | Freestyle | Washington, D.C.)

"Swimming is a universal language, I've come to find. I was born and raised in Washington, D.C., swimming since the age of six. I took swim lessons when I was four years old because my family was going to visit my mother's hometown of Fairbanks but wanted to be safe while hiking near the Chena River. Realizing that I loved being in the water, I joined the swim team and never looked back. At the age of 18, travelling 4,000 miles away from home to compete for UAF's NCAA Division II swim team, I wasn't sure if I was prepared. What if they swam a different way or trained doing things completely opposite of what I'm used to? I am one of four freshmen on the team this year and we are all from different places in the world, wondering these same questions. However, as I write this, the team is nearing the third week of training and I'm happy to report that practice is going very well.

We spend four hours a day training in the Patty Pool, mainly building our aerobic bases and endurance. After the first five days of practice, the team completed a T-30 set, which is a timed 30-minute swim where each swimmer strives to swim as many laps of the pool as possible. In October, we will complete a second T-30 to see how far we've come in our training. I felt good at the first session, swimming just under 2,150 yards in half an hour. Coach Scott and Coach Stacy's excellent coaching have helped me realize that there are no limits when it comes to setting goals. They are supportive and focused coaches, helping us swim strong and powerfully, but also effortlessly. The two coaches also have winning, positive attitudes, which is indispensable when practice starts at 5:30am!

I had swim practice three times a week at 4:45am in the pool at American University in Washington, D.C. Driving from Capitol Hill at that time of day, there was no traffic on the roads. I treasured those mornings, being able to enjoy the powerful city in its slumber. Here at UAF, I enjoy the walk from my dorm room to the Patty Center for different reasons. I've seen the Northern Lights several times now and when the snow falls, it will be like walking in a winter wonderland. Living and swimming in Alaska is a magical experience and I'm loving every minute of it!"

Hockey
By: #20 Max Newton (Fr. | F | Vancouver, B.C.)

"Hey Nanook Nation,

My name is Max Newton and I'm a freshman on the hockey team this year. For the next few weeks, I'm going to be the one giving you guys updates, stories and fun facts from everything going on with our team this season.

A little bit about myself: I'm from Vancouver, British Columbia and I'm 19 years old. My parent's names are Sam and Lori and I have a sister named Stella. I will also be playing forward for your Alaska Nanooks. Since I will be doing fun facts on each of the other freshmen, I will give one about myself – I lived in Mexico for two years and that is actually how my hockey career started out, as I played roller hockey there. I'll give some more information about myself as the weeks progress but that's it for now.

This last weekend we participated in the Leadership Challenge. Sounds peaceful, right? That's what I though too but it was far from it. I'll start off by mentioning that we had to be at the Patty at 7:45am, which is hard enough for someone like myself who enjoys his sleep. Our first activity started right at 8m with my team getting thrown right into the fire with the Truck Push station. Pretty self-explanatory, as we had to literally push a Ford F-150 up the hill on Yukon Drive. After suffering through that, we went to a plate push-pull section, where it seemed like we had every weight on campus on a sled and pull them 30 yards, while the rest of your group does push-ups.

After that torture, we headed to the plate carry, where we do exactly what the title entails. For any of you that have had a 45-pound plate in your hand, you know how awkward it is to carry those things and doing it for 20 minutes straight. We then headed to tire flips. I won't explain this one too much but I will mention that there is some controversy because Chad Staley's inability to do simple math. He claims he did 3.5 lengths when the official counter (Coach Parnell) insists he only did 2.5. The last station for my group was the sandbag carry, where we had to carry 34 sandbags up the hill behind the rock climbing wall in under 20 minutes. I will note the general consensus is that this was the hardest event by far with only two of the five groups completing it.

My team was called FastHockey and I will say we dominated a lot of these events. The winner has yet to be decided but I know our team is in contention for sure. As much as that morning was really difficult and not something I would voluntarily do every weekend, I know our team realized how much easier it was when we communicated, worked together and pushed ourselves, which I think was the primary goal of this activity.

Later that day, we had our annual Alumni Golf Tournament with our whole team volunteering at certain stations. We had the opportunity to mingle with former Nanooks and it was a great time hearing their stories and watching them golf. The highlight of the tournament for me was seeing a little 12-year old girl sing her putt in the putting contest, which made me super impressed since I know there was no chance I would be able to drain that putt.

Each week I'm going to feature one of my fellow freshman so you can really get to know them a little more. This week, I've got a few details behind Brennan Blaszczak's life growing up. He's a native of Detroit, Mich. And he's one of the top-five athletes on this year's Nanooks Hockey squad. He's the self-proclaimed best dancer on the team, although there might be some disputing that. When growing up in Las Vegas, he was neighbors with the recently turned 50-0 professional boxer Floyd Mayweather. He will wearing #14 for the Nooks this season.

Thanks for reading this week's entry, I'm looking forward to what the next week has in store for us as a team as we near our Blue vs. Gold game on Sept. 23."

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