FAIRBANKS, AK - The Alaska Nanooks opened up the 2009-2010 swimming season and dropped a hard fought contest to Seattle University 123.5-80.5. Juniors
Mariya Pavlovskaya (Korolev City, Russia) and
Felina Rosadiuk (Fairbanks, AK) each brought home three wins for the Nanooks.
Alaska started the meet strong by winning the first event, the 200 yard medley relay, which was comprised of Pavlovskaya,
Courtney Nichols (Columbia,SC),
Abbey Jackson (Petersburg, AK) and Rosadiuk in a time of 1:53.20. The Nanooks narrowly beat out Seattle by .07 of a second to take the early lead. Jackson lifted her team from the second position to the third position on the second leg of the race and never looked back.
Rosadiuk took home wins in the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard freestyle. In the 50 freestyle Rosadiuk won by almost a full second with a time of 25.23 seconds while beating out Liz Hanohano-Hong of Seattle by .40 seconds in the 100 free with a time of 54.01.
"
Felina Rosadiuk won the 50 free in a time 2/10ths of a second off her lifetime best," said coach Lemley, "and just off the pool record. She looked very fast, very high in the water, and very much uncatchable."
Pavlovskaya took home wins in teh 400 yard IM and the 200 yard backstroke along with her 200 yard medley victory. Pavlovskaya won the 400 yard IM by 18 seconds over her closest competitor with a time of 4:38.61. Pavlovskaya won the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:10.63.
With Pavlovskaya's victory in the 200 yard backstroke the Nanooks closed the deficit to only 13 with the score 81-68. The Nanooks, however, could not capitalized on some strong swimming as Seattle pulled away with four straight event victories.
Kinsey Laine (Silver Lake, WA) also had a strong night for the Blue and Gold. She finished third in the 200 yard freestyle (2:00.48), second in the 200 yard butterfly (2:16.42), and second in the 500 yard freestyle (5:24.98). In the 500 yard freestyle Laine used a late burst to vault from fourth place to second place in the final two lengths to challenge for first.
Despite the tough loss head coach
Scott Lemley was still happy with his team: "Today was a good test. We're certainly ahead of where we were last year in our first meet. We're looking forward to tomorrow to see if we can close the gap a bit before Seattle University heads back south to the Emerald City."
The Nanooks will return to the pool tomorrow when they once again will host Seattle. The match is set to start at 12:00 PM.
