FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- The Alaska Nanooks swim team opens the 2015-16 season at home this weekend, as they'll take on Azusa Pacific in Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference action. The Nanooks open the season on Friday with a 6 p.m. meet against the Cougars and conclude the season-opening weekend on Saturday with a 12 p.m. contest. Both meets will be held at the Patty Center Pool.
This weekend will be the first official meet for the Nanooks, as they are coming off of a strong performance in their Blue vs. Gold Pentathlon, where several swimmers set new personal-best times. Alaska comes into the 2015-16 season off of another strong season under head coach Scott Lemley, as Alaska had five swimmers earn nine All-American honors. The Nanooks return four of their five All-American swimmers from a year ago, as eight-time All-American Victoria Adams, six-time All-American Nga Nguyen and two-time All-Americans Martha Hood and Katie Stark will anchor a deep and talented roster.
"This team's fitness level is extremely high going into this season," said Lemley. "They had a great display in their Blue/Gold meet, and were able to compete event after event with no cool down. We set a high bar in terms for them in terms of time and we wanted to get everyone faster and they've responded. This is a talented group and their extremely focused and ready to go."
Lemley is looking forward to opening the season at home and states that Azusa Pacific brings a talented team to the Last Frontier. He added that his Nanooks will be challenged out of the gate by the Cougars, especially in the distance events.
"This is a team that is in our conference and we've scouted them a lot," said Lemley. "We swim against them a fair amount, in fact, there were up here last year. They have a really good distance swimmer, who we didn't have an answer for this year. We are hopeful that we do have that answer this year, so we are looking forward to the matchups in the distance free style events."
Friday's meet opens with the 400-yard medley relay, followed by the 1,000-yard, 200-yard and 50-yard freestyle races and conclude with the brand new 100-yard individual medley before the first diving break. Scott says that his team will be well-prepared for the new NCAA event, as he was used the 100-IM as a training event during the first month of his team's training regimen in year's past.
After the first dive break, the meet will transition into the 100-yard butterfly, freestyle and backstroke before swimmers compete in the 500-yard freestyle in front of the Friday's final break. The meet will conclude with the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard freestyle relay.
Saturday will feature the 200-yard medley relay, 1,650-yard, 200-yard and 50-yard freestyle races and the 400-yard individual medley in the first block of events, the 200-yard butterfly, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke and 500-yard freestyle in the second event block. The weekend concludes with the 200-yard breaststroke and 400-yard freestyle relay.
For more information on the Alaska swim team, follow @AlaskaSwim on Twitter or like Alaska Nanooks Swimming on Facebook.
