The Alaska swim team headed into Phoenix knowing that they would be seeing a tough team in Grand Canyon University. They ended up on the bottom end of a tri-meet by a final of Grand Canyon 140, Mesa State 68, Alaska 50.
“GCU's depth and speed was as impressive today as it was when we swam against them at our pool last November,” said head coach Scott Lemley.
As for Mesa State, consider this meet retaliation for three seasons ago, when the Nanooks topped beat them.
Mariya Pavlovskaya won two events: the 100 Yard Breaststroke (1:08.76) and the 200 Yard Backstroke (2:10.50).
“Mariya was able to put a surge on at the end of her races and win convincingly. By the time she got to the 200 IM she didn't have much left though still swam a very decent time (2:13.39 – Second Place),” Lemley said.
Courtney Nichols had an impressive meet, finishing second in the 200 Yard Breaststroke (2:32.10) and third in the 200 Yard IM behind Pavlovskaya (2:22.77).
Bente Heller—the newest Nanook swimmer—finished with three second place finishes: the 50 Yard Freestyle (25.17), 100 Yard Freestyle (54.93) and 100 Yard Butterfly (1:01.07).
“She's been coaching herself for the past several weeks,” Lemley said. “On top of those challenging conditions, she spent many hours last weekend flying from Hamburg, Germany to Flagstaff where we introduced her to five hours of rigorous daily practices at high altitude. I'm pretty sure she's even more beat up than the rest of our team.”
