FAIRBANKS – The name
Bente Heller (Hamburg, Germany/Psychology) is widely known in the swimming community and the 2013 national champion will now add another sport to her decorated résumé as head coach
Scott Jerome announced Heller will run for the Alaska women's cross country program in the 2014 season.
Heller just wrapped up an illustrious career with the Alaska swimming program and by virtue of the NCAA rule that a student-athlete has 10 semesters to compete as a collegian, she will use an additional year to run for the Nanooks.
"As an NCAA champion, Bente is a proven winner," Jerome said. "She is a killer in the pool, a worker and is self-motivated and dedicated to her sports. That's the type of attitude and personality we need for Alaska Cross Country."
In the pool, Heller was a career 14-time All-American in her three trips to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, with seven individual and seven relay accolades. This past season, she was a five-time All-American and helped Alaska to its best-ever finish at the NCAA meet, with a 14th-place team finish.
At the 2013 championships, Heller made program history by capturing the national championship in the 100-yard backstroke, which was the first individual title for the Nanooks. It was only the second time she had competed in that individual event, with the first being her qualifying race in the 100 back.
She concluded her swimming career with nine varsity records, including being a member on all five record-holding relay tandems, and owns all freestyle sprint records. Heller was also part of a pair of Patty Center Pool records in the 200- and 400-free relays.
At the conference level, Heller was a three-time Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference champion as a senior, claiming the 100-yard backstroke and swimming a leg on Alaska's 200- and 400-medley relays. In her four years at the PCSC meet, she claimed 15 All-Conference laurels.
Heller joins a women's cross country team which returns virtually all of its top performers from 2013. She is no stranger to running distance races, having competed in triathlons in her home country of Germany.
"We made excellent gains last year with Kali [Striker], Dorothy [O'Donnell], Sarah [Lilly] and several others," Jerome said. "Bente will continue this trend. She ran well in several triathlons last summer. We know that she has the engine. We just need to make sure that she stays injury-free as she begins to build her miles for cross country. I am thrilled that Bente has joined our team."
