Results
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LA MIRADA, Calif. – Freshman
Margot Adams (Anchorage, Alaska/Frontier Charter) became just the second Alaska swimmer in program history to capture an individual title at the Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference Championships on Friday at the Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatic Center.
“Since our conference meet is being held at an outdoor pool for the first time in its history, there's a fair amount of adjusting to do,” head coach
Scott Lemley said. “Most of the teams in our conference either train during the season in an outdoor pool or have extensive experience swimming in outdoor pools. Some of our swimmers have never competed outdoors before. I've told our swimmers many times that the team which adjusts to the conditions on race day the best will race the best.”
Adams was able to adjust to the adverse conditions as she won the 100 butterfly with a varsity record time of 55.38 seconds, which was one one-hundredth of a second shy of a NCAA 'A' cut time. She became the second Nanook and first since former standout
Maria Pavlovskaya won the 200 individual medley in 2009 to win a PCSC individual championship. The Anchorage native also won the preliminary race with a time of 56.08.
She also took fourth place in the 100 backstroke with a mark of 57.22, improving on her time of 58.73 in the preliminary race.
Sophomore
Bente Heller (Hamburg, Germany/Albrecht Thzer Gymnasium) was runner-up in the 200 freestyle after hitting the wall in 1:51.82. Heller improved on her qualifying time of 1:52.42, which won the preliminary. Freshman
Danielle Lyons (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan/St. Mary's) turned in a fourth-place finish in the 400 IM after completing the event in 4:30.62, which was just over one second faster than her qualifying time.
Other top-10 finishers on Friday included freshmen
Gabi Summers (Cheyenne, Wyo./Central) and
Genevieve Johnson (Fresno, Calif./University). Summers took seventh in the 200 free with a mark of 1:55.04, while Johnson was eighth in the 100 fly in 1:00.95. In addition, Johnson finished in 18th place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.16.
On the relay side, the team of Summers, Johnson, Adams and Heller placed fifth in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:59.21.
Other individual consolation qualifiers included
Lauren Bailey (Lakewood, Colo./Lakewood),
Meghan O'Leary (Seward, Alaska/Seward),
Sarah Meierotto (Fairbanks, Alaska/North Pole) and
Lindsey Krause (Kent, Wash./Kentwood).
Bailey completed the 400 IM in 16th place after touching the wall in 4:55.50. O'Leary advanced to a pair of consolations as she took 23rd in the 200 free (2:01.62) and 27th in the 100 back (1:04.30). In the 100 breast consolation, Meierotto finished in 21st with a mark of 1:10.95, while Krause was 30th in 1:13.38.
The Nanooks moved up one spot to fifth in the team standings with 465 points. That score trails fourth-place Pepperdine by just nine points. UC-San Diego maintained its large lead with 1,191.5 points, while California Baptist is in second (829.5) and Fresno Pacific sits third (531).
“We're not the only team who's having a good year,” Lemley said. “It seems every team in our conference recruited well and is having a good year. It's going to be a challenge to finish in fourth place like we did last year, much less moving up in the rankings.”
The final day of the championships gets underway at 9 a.m. with preliminaries, followed by the finals at 4:30 p.m.
