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Friday Prelims Recap
MANSFIELD, Texas – The Alaska women's swim team turned in its strongest relay finish in the history of the program as the 800 freestyle relay took fourth place and earned All-America accolades at the 2012 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday night at the Mansfield ISD Natatorium.
The tandem of freshmen
Danielle Lyons (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan/St. Mary's),
Margot Adams (Anchorage, Alaska/Frontier Charter),
Gabi Summers (Cheyenne, Wyo./Central) and sophomore
Bente Heller (Hamburg, Germany/Albrecht Thzer Gymnasium) completed the lengthiest relay in the NCAA with a mark of seven minutes, 27.82 seconds. That time set a new varsity standard for the Nanooks foursome.
“We did a great job as a team and everyone improved, so it was a great race,” Heller said after earning her third All-America award of the week.
“I think it's a real milestone for our program,” head coach
Scott Lemley said. “This is the toughest relay there is. It's the only relay that has a timed final and there's a reason for that, it's too grueling. We've never really qualified to be here in this relay and now we're really with the elite teams – Wayne State, Drury and UC San Diego.”
Wayne State took the event's gold with a mark of 7:22.27, with UCSD and Drury following in second and third with times of 7:24.39 and 7:25.03, respectively.
This is also the second All-America honor of the week for this relay group, as they took 14th on Thursday in the 200 free relay to become Honorable Mention All-Americans in that event. Coach Lemley was the awards presenter for tonight's relay, so even he was able to share the moment with his young ladies.
“We didn't know he was going to award us, but that was amazing,” Heller said.
The Nanooks moved into a tie for 16th place out of 37 teams that have scored with 68 points. Alaska shares that spot with Henderson State, host of the national meet.
Earlier Friday, Summers wrapped up her individual competition at the championships with a remarkable drop in the 500 freestyle as she set another personal-best time.
“I had a good week [individually], I'm not too upset with myself about not making finals,” Summers said. “I didn't have any hard-set expectations, I just wanted to get best times, that's what I ended up getting and I'm fine with that.”
Summers completed her third and final solo event with a lifetime-best mark of five minutes, 3.28 seconds in the 500, which was nearly seven seconds faster than her seeded time. She finished the race in 26th, which was a jump of 19 spots from her preliminary seeding of 45th. That time was also one second shy of the varsity record (5:02.28), set back on Feb. 19, 2009, by former Nanook
Sam Zinsli.
“That was a great swim,” Lemley said. “It moves her up to number two all-time and just missed breaking our varsity record. She came into the program as a 5:30 500 swimmer, went 5:10 during the season and went 5:03 today.”
“I've worked hard this year and every time I try to slow down and take break, this meet has been a motivation for me to keep going,” Summers said. “That's what my races have shown so far.”
Yesterday, Summers registered a pair of lifetime bests as she placed 20th in the 400 individual medley in 4:32.39, which was nearly six seconds faster than her seeded time, while also taking 24th in the 200 freestyle with in 1:53.57.
Also in the pool on Friday morning were freshmen
Genevieve Johnson (Fresno, Calif./University) and Adams.
Johnson was 34th in the 100 breaststroke after hitting the wall in 1:08.84, while Adams, runner-up in the 100 butterfly yesterday, took 37th in the 100 backstroke with a time of 59.82.
The fourth and final day of the championships gets underway Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. (CT), while finals are slated for a 6 p.m. (CT) start.
Live results and
live web streaming of the championships are available through NCAA.com.
Tomorrow, Heller and Adams will compete in the 100 freestyle, while the same relay that took the podium tonight will conclude their NCAA experience with the 400 free relay.
