Meet Results (PDF)
FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- The Gold Alaska Nanooks swim team mounted a 311-298 come-from-behind win over the Blue Alaska Nanooks swim team on Saturday afternoon to capture the Blue/Gold Pentathlon title on Saturday afternoon at the Patty Center Pool.
This year's Pentathlon featured one relay and six individual sprint races, as head coach Scott Lemley tested the stamina and endurance of his Nanooks. His team responded well, as seven Nanooks hit personal-best times.
"This was an exciting meet. We had some superb performances this afternoon," expressed Lemley. "This meet is not designed for swimmers to set best times, and yet we had a few lifetime-best performances. The swimmers training has been going really well, by evidence of how fast they swam today."
It was Gold, which featured Kathryn Pound, Linnea Doumas, Martha Hood, Cassidy Heaton, Nga Nguyen, Abby Blackstone, Eden Gumaer and Nina Mullin, capturing the come-from-behind victory, over Blue, which consisted of Victoria Adams, Kate Mathews, Noelle Graham, Katie Stark, Hannah White, Cassidy Kelly and Rachel Crosley, as they erased an early 75-59 deficit after two events to win the Pentathlon, 311-298.
"During our training for this event, it had been Blue consistently out performing Gold. Gold responded and swam well today to beat Blue. It was really exciting to see, but overall I'm pleased with everyone's performance."
The event opened with the 200-yard medley relay, as the Blue team of Adams, Mathews, Graham and Stark posted a 1:50.05 time to defeat Gold's quartet of Doumas, Nguyen, Hood and Heaton, who finished their laps in 1:53.94.
Adams would again lead the Blue team to a victory in the 100-yard butterfly with her time of 1:00.26. The All-American had to fend off Gold's Hood, as she won the race by just .21 seconds. Adams followed her 100 Fly performance with a victory in the 100-yard backstroke, as once again defeated Hood by tenths of a second, this time winning by .27 seconds, with a time of 1:01.68.
Adams' back-to-back wins helped her team take 130-123 lead after three events, but it would be the Gold team placing six swimmers in the top seven of the 100-yard breaststroke to bypass them Blue and take a 194-176 lead after the event. Nguyen gave Gold their first individual winner of the afternoon, as her time of 1:07.59 gave her the .01 win over Blue's Mathews.
Blue pulled within four, at 247-243, after Stark, Adams and Mathews went 1-2-3 in the 100-yard free style, with Stark winning the race in 55.68.
Gold was able to hold on to their lead and complete the come-from-behind meet victory on Saturday, as Hood captured first in the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 1:02.86.
Mathews of the Blue team captured the overall individual meet title, as she collected a time of 5:15.32 in the five individual sprints. Gold's Hood finished just 0.32 seconds behind Mathews to take second and Adams' overall time of 5:22.88 placed her third.
Freshman Cassidy Kelly set a personal-best time in all four of the five events (100 Fly; 1:07.99, 100 Back; 1:12.35, 100 Breast; 1:25.24 and 100 Free; 1:02.08) this afternoon, while Mathews (1:03.99), Blackstone (1:07.02) and Nguyen (1:10.90) each set a PR in the 100-yard backstroke. Three other Nanooks set a new personal standard in the 100-yard breaststroke, as Pound posted a 1:16.90, Stark collected a 1:20.98 and Crosley touched the side 1:31-flat.
The Alaska Nanooks swim team will officially open the 2015-16 season in two weeks, as they take on Azusa Pacific on Oct. 16 and 17. The Oct. 16 meet will start at 6 p.m. at the Patty Center Pool, followed by a 12 p.m. start time on the 17th.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks swim team, follow @NanooksSwim on Twitter or like Alaska Nanooks Swimming on Facebook.
