Jan. 8, 2008
Final Stats
MAUI, HI - Alaska's Mariya Pavlovskaya overcame her fatigue from a number of grueling training sessions as well as intense Division I competition to emerge as the overall winner from the Nanooks sprint pentathlon event against Loyola Marymount and Division III Macalester College in Maui on Tuesday. Pavlovskaya, the youngest swimmer in the entire meet, posted a total time of 3:00.36 over the five events (50-yard swims for the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle followed by a 100 IM), good for a narrow .06-victory over LMU's Kim McKay.
Pavlovskaya finished among the top ten swimmers in four of the five legs of the pentathlon, including a win in the 50-yard breaststroke, a second-place spot in the 50-yard backstroke, and fourth place in the individual medley.
"Mariya was obviously one of the best athletes at the competition this evening," head coach Scott Lemley said. "We're very fortunate she chose to come to UAF for the academics because she not only contributes to our high team GPA but obviously is an integral part of our team athletically as well."
In addition to Pavlovskaya, junior Sam Zinsli also enjoyed a solid meet. The Kennewick, Wash. native finished 10th overall in the event, landing a team-best third place finish in the freestyle leg. Zinsli also came in eighth in the 50-yard breaststroke, becoming one of the four Nanooks to place in the top-ten in the event, as Pavlovskaya took first place while Jacqueline van Driessche and Kathryn Niemi finished seventh and ninth, respectively.
Overall, Loyola Marymount emerged as the team winners of the event, ringing up a total of 887 points, though their roster boasted twice as many swimmers as the Nanooks. Alaska was forced to settle for second place, finishing with 243.5 points, while Macalester had 34.5.
Lemley, however, was hesitant to put too much emphasis on the final scoreline. "We were swimming against one of the best - if not the best - team in our conference," he said. "They're also more-or-less a sprint team so this format really suited them better than it did us."
Alaska's swimmers return to action today for a duathalon against LMU: a half-mile run on the beach followed by a mile swim in open water. The Nanooks will remain in Hawaii on their training trip until January 12, returning in time for their meet against California Baptist at the Patty Center on Jan. 19-20.
