PARKLAND, Wash. – The Alaska Nanooks swim team fell to the Pacific Lutheran Lutes on Saturday, Jan. 11, 99-107. This drops the 'Nooks to 0-7 on the season. 
 
The Nanooks led the day off with a win in the 200-yard medley relay when a team of Erika Kakazu, Kaia Norbye, Oda Bygdnes and Makayla Suominen swam a time of 1:48.38, winning the event by more than three seconds. Two events later, in the 1000-yard freestyle, Tori Shoemaker won closely over her teammate Camille Dayton with a time of 11:15.09. Dayton was just over a second behind with an 11:16.91 final time. 
 
It took a little time, but four events later, the Nanooks claimed another win in the 50-yard freestyle when Suominen defeated the rest of the pack by almost two whole seconds. She put up a time of 24.26, with the second place finisher getting 26.17 on the timer. In the 11^th event of the day, Oda Bygdnes claimed a win with the only sub-minute run in the 100-yard butterfly. She put up an astounding time of 57.75 for the win and was followed by a time of 1:01.52. 
 
Alaska claimed only two more wins on the day, beginning with Norbye in the 100-yard breaststroke, winning by nearly three seconds with a time of 1:06.81. In the final event of the day, the Nanooks swept the 200-yard freestyle relay with both the top and runner up position. Whitney McArthur, Suominen, Bygdnes and Norbye made up the top finishers with a time of 1:39.78 and Syd Gulon, Carol McCormick, Kyleigh McArthur and Kakazu made up the second place finishers with a time of 1:45.35.
 
Head coach loved the way her team competed even after their training trip to Hawaii, "The ladies had a phenomenal training trip out on the Big Island of Hawaii. We were able to get in ample amounts of quality training and improve our team as a whole. We even had an opportunity to swim the 2.4 mile World Ironman Championship course, which was a unique out-of-pool training experience for our women. Our swim meet against Pacific Lutheran University was a day after our trip and our ladies swam well considering they just finished off their 9 day training trip. We did a great job focusing on small details, hitting our starts and turns, and finishing off our races. With the amount of focus and determination we had, I am happy with how we finished against PLU." 
 
For more information on the Alaska Nanooks swim team, follow @NanooksSwim on Twitter, or like the Alaska Nanooks Swim team page on Facebook.