RESULTS
FAIRBANKS, Alaska – The Alaska Nanooks swim team showed no signs of rust in their first competition in nearly two weeks, as they cruised to a 126-79 victory over Biola University at the Patty Center Pool on Friday.
The Nanooks (2-1) had five swimmers collect six event titles against Eagles, as sophomore Kate Mathews continues her impressive start with Alaska by picking up two event titles. The sophomore transfer captured the 200-yard IM title (2:10.72) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.36), as she defeated a pair of Alaska record holders in each event.
"It was a good meet for us," said head coach Scott Lemley. "Victoria Adams started things off with a season best split in the 100 backstroke leg of the 400 medley relay. One of the better early races was the 200 IM, where Kate Mathews went head-to-head with our varsity record holder in that event, Victoria Adams. Cassidy Heaton won the 500-yard free with a PR. In perhaps the premier match-up of the night, Mathews again went stroke for stroke a varsity record holder, this time with Nga Nguyen in the 100-yard breaststroke, and came away with another win. Kate had another stand out meet."
Alaska opened Friday's meet with another dominating performance in the 400-yard medley relay. The quartet of Victoria Adams, Nga Nguyen, Martha Hood and Katie Stark complied a time of 4:00.64, as they won the race by nearly the full length of the pool.
Biola responded with a pair of victories in the next two distance events, as Abby Blake ran away with the 1,000-yard freestyle title, while Lisa Tixier (1:57.00) edged out the All-American Stark by .83 seconds in the 200-yard freestyle.
Hood brought home Alaska's first individual title of the night, as she won the 50-yard freestyle in 24.87 seconds. Mathews followed Hood's performance with an outstanding outing in the 200-yard IM, as she turned in a time of 2:10.72 to beat the Nanooks' 200-yard IM record holder, Victoria Adams, by 2.64 seconds.
Tixier gave Biola its third event title with her first-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly, but that would be the last victory for the Eagles on the night, as the Nanooks dominated the final four individual events by taking first place in the 100-yard freestyle (Stark; 54.93), 100-yard backstroke (Adams; 58.94), 500-yard freestlye (Cassidy Heaton; 5:14.51) and the 100-yard breaststroke (Mathews: 1:06.36).
Alaska capped off the night with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle relay, as Hannah White, Noelle Graham, Mathews and Nguyen collected a time of 1:42.54 to win the race by 4.42 seconds.
The Nanooks will be back in action tomorrow afternoon, as they'll look to complete the sweep of the Eagles. The meet's first event is scheduled for 12 p.m. at the Patty Center Pool. The meet will be streamed live on the Alaska Nanooks Stretch Internet Portal. You can watch the meet by clicking the link here.
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks swim team, follow @NanooksSwim on Twitter or like Alaska Nanooks Swim on Facebook.
