Nov. 4, 2006
Results
By Matias Saari, Sports Reporter, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Published November 5, 2006
Posted in Sports, College
The swim season has barely begun, but freshmen Kelly Becker and Jacqueline van Driessche are well on their way to rewriting the Alaska Nanooks record book.
Seemingly unfazed despite competing in two meets in about 16 hours, Becker, of Tualatin, Ore., and van Driessche from Seward each smashed three team records against Seattle University in Bothell, Wash., on Saturday morning. Both have now recorded five team standards to combine for 10 records among 17 individual Nanooks' marks.
"As exhausted as everyone was, we swam very well, breaking nine team records and achieving two NCAA `B' time standards," said Coach Scott Lemley via e-mail about the team's performance Friday and Saturday.
Seattle, which finished 15th in NCAA Division II last year, claimed Saturday's meet 173-77 after topping the second-year Nanooks 155-48 on Friday night.
Alaska is now 0-6 in dual meets this season.
Mechanical problems at SU's Connelly Center forced the meet to be shifted to suburban Bothell and the starting times to be moved two hours later Friday night and four hours earlier than originally scheduled on Saturday morning.
"Last night we got back to our hotel at midnight and we were out the door this morning at 6 a.m.," said Lemley. "The girls were tired and on the whole it showed. Seattle U's depth and the general excellence of their team was again evident in most events."
But the Nanooks, led by Becker, van Driessche and sophomore Samantha Zinsli, had their share of highlights.
Becker, competing for the first time this weekend after serving a four-meet suspension for violating team rules, first won the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 57.99 seconds, just a half-second shy of the NCAA provisional qualifying "B" time.
About 20 minutes later, Becker won the 200 butterfly in 2:08.24, breaking the team record by more than eight seconds.
The time was three seconds under the NCAA "B" standard and just missed the automatic qualifying "A" standard.
"Last year a 2:08 would have placed ninth at (NCAA Division II) nationals," Lemley said.
Becker also achieved the "B" standard Friday in the 1,000 freestyle.
Later Saturday, Becker won her third event, the 500 freestyle in 5:14.61, to set yet another team record and single-handedly earn 27 points in the meet for the Nanooks.
Not to be outdone, van Driessche started off the 400 medley relay with a team-record 100 backstroke split of 1:01.88, though the relay was later disqualified for an early takeoff.
She then broke her own team record by placing second in the 200 breaststroke in 2:31.12. Van Driessche capped the day with a record-setting 4:51.26 in the 400 IM, demolishing the previous mark by 15 seconds, to place runner-up.
Zinsli had Alaska's other win, taking the grueling 1,650 freestyle in 18:14.81.
"That time is just off her team record and for how tired she was, it was an outstanding effort on her part," Lemley said.
The Nanooks' next event is the Speedo Cup Nov. 16-18 in Long Beach, Calif., a large, highly competitive meet that features DI squads such as powerhouse Stanford.
