FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks swim was handed their first loss of the season, as they fell to Azusa Pacific, 98-106, Saturday morning at the Patty Center Pool. The Nanooks split the weekend meets after defeating Azusa Friday evening, 104-101.
The Nanooks had five first place finishes today, including a handful of swim times that currently rank within the top five times in the country for NCAA Division II.
"Losing today wasn't because we were tired or sore," Head Coach Scott Lemley explained. "Azusa Pacific was simply the better team all around the pool today."
Alaska started off the meet hot, as the 200 medley relay team handily finished in first place by half the length of the pool with a time of 1:49.49. All-American Junior Victoria Adams started off the relay with the backstroke, Junior All-American Nga Nguyen competed in the breaststroke, Sophomore All-American Martha Hood swam the butterfly and Sophomore All-American Katie Stark anchored for the Nanooks first place victory.
Although finishing second overall for the 1650 yard freestyle, Freshman Cassidy Heaton swam a 17:59.09, putting her in the Alaska Nanooks All-Time Top Ten list for the event and cracking the fourth fastest time in the country. Lemley expressed that Heaton's time was a personal best for the Fairbanks-native by over 15 seconds.
Hood showed even more consistency throughout the weekend after placing first in the 50 yard freestyle with an impressive time of 0:24.61. Hood maintains her credibility of being one of the top three sprinters in the country for NCAA Division II.
Sophomore Kate Mathews swam in her first 200 yard butterfly in her college career and produced a person-best of 2:15.03, which will rank her in the top 16 in the country and put her on the list of being the sixth fastest 200 butterfly swam by a Nanook. Being in the top 16 is good for swimmers in Division II since the NCAA selects the top ranked 16 swimmers in the country to compete at the national championships in the spring.
The next two first place finishes came from Stark in the 100 yard freestyle (0:54.05) and Adams in the 200 yard breaststroke (2:08.16) which puts her with 6th fastest time in the country currently. Mathews prevailed again, finishing first in the last individual event, the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:27.51, by a significant margin currently putting her with the 7th fastest time in the nation.
In the last event of the meet, the Nanook team of Adams, Nguyen, Stark and Mathews swam to first place in the 400 yard freestyle with a time of 3:38.39.
The Nanooks return to action Friday, October 30th with a meet against Biola Unversity at the Patty Center Pool in Fairbanks.
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