Meet Results
FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Oct. 15, 2011 - The Alaska swim team opened the 2011-12 season Saturday with its annual Blue vs. Gold meet at the Patty Center, and the Gold team came away with a narrow six-point victory over the Blue squad after leading throughout. Gold tallied 403 points to Blue's 409.
The overall high-point winners of the meet were freshman
Danielle Lyons (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan/St. Mary's), freshman
Gabi Summers (Cheyenne, Wyo./Central) and sophomore
Bente Heller (Hamburg, Germany/Albrecht Thzer Gymnasium).
Lyons led all swimmers with 10 points over the five events, while Summers had 15 points and Heller one point behind with 16. Heller led the 'Nooks with three first-place finishes, including a pool record in the 100 butterfly after turning in a time of 58.25 seconds, breaking the former record set last year by Nicole Cossey of Simon Fraser.
Since there were no outside teams competing against Alaska, her time does not count toward NCAA competition, but head coach
Scott Lemley believes her future is bright.
“It bodes well for how she'll fare later in the season since her time today was under the NCAA 'B' or 'consideration' qualifying time,” Lemley said. “The girl who set the pool record last year [in that event], Simon Fraser's Nicole Cossey, was one of the fastest swimmers in the country.”
In the 100 fly, following Heller's record-breaking performance was Lyons in second with a time of 1:00.13 and sophomore
Ashley Crowe (Billings, Mont.) in third in 1:01.95. Heller continued her quick start with a time of 1:01.21 in the 100 backstroke to win the event. Summers was runner-up in 1:01.61 and Lyons was third in 1:02.66.
Freshman
Genevieve Johnson (Fresno, Calif./University) won the 100 breaststroke by over one-and-a-half seconds in 1:09.39. Lyons clocked a time of 1:11.73 for second, followed by Summers in third in 1:13.07. Heller came back with a victory in the 100 freestyle with a time of 53.53. Lyons was right behind her in 54.38 and Summers was third in 55.05.
Lyons won her only event to clinch the top individual spot in the100 individual medley with a mark of 1:02.35. Summers hit the wall in 1:03.88 for second and Heller was third with a time 1:04.57.
"Though Bente won three of the five events, her breaststroke isn't on par with her other three strokes and Danielle, with her second-place finish in the breast and first place in the 100 IM, clinched the overall individual honor," Lemley said. “By touching out Bente for second place [in the IM], Gabi was able to overcome Bente's two-point lead and finish second overall.”
The Nanooks will host California Baptist on Oct. 28-29 at the Patty Center. The first day will begin at 6 p.m. with day two commencing at noon the following day.
NOTE: The event was set up with individual's points coming from how each placed in the particular event. The least amount of total team points indicated the winning side.
