Swimming's relays open PCSC Championship with season-best marks
February 15, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
The Alaska women's swim team opened competition at the 2013 Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference Championship with a pair of top five relay finishes Wednesday afternoon at the La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center.
The Nanooks finished runner-up in the 800 freestyle relay with after the foursome consisting of sophomores Danielle Lyons (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan/Biological sciences), Margot Adams (Anchorage, Alaska/Political science), Gabi Summers (Cheyenne, Wyo./Foreign Language) and junior Bente Heller (Hamburg, Germany/Communication) clocked a season-best time of seven minutes, 35.05 seconds.
“During the 800 free relay we held our own with every team but one, the defending champion Tritons, who nearly broke the conference record with their efforts,” head coach Scott Lemley said. “We did extract a measure of retribution against Cal State East Bay (who beat us in back to back home dual meets last fall) by dropping nearly 8 seconds from our season best and touching them out in the process.”
That mark, which was nearly seven seconds faster than the team's previous top time of the year, was only bested by UC San Diego, as the Tritons surpassed the NCAA A-cut standard (7:26.45).
In the opening event, the 200 medley relay, the tandem of Heller, freshman Eileen Audette (Seward, Alaska/Fisheries), Adams and Lyons completed the race with a season-best time of 1:46.62 to place fourth. The top three of Simon Fraser, UCSD and Fresno Pacific all went under 1:45 in the eight-length sprint.
“We ended up with some good splits and a couple only fairly good splits in the first event, the 200 medley relay,” Lemley said. “Even though our time was a season best and faster than we swam at the Husky Invitational in December, it won't be fast enough for us to be national qualifiers. Dani had the best split of the four with her 23.95 anchor but it wasn't good enough to overcome the top three teams.”
Both Nanook relay squads earned All-Conference status for finishing inside the top eight in a respective event.
Alaska's “B” relay also produced an 18th-place finish in the 800 free relay while taking 19th in the medley relay. “Our 'B' relays swam very well, too, leading me to believe that we're indeed ready to swim well here,” Lemley said.
UC San Diego, the defending champions, leads the field with 195 points through the first day. Pepperdine is in second (155), followed by Fresno Pacific (152), Azusa Pacific (124.5), Cal Baptist (124), UC Santa Cruz (123), Simon Fraser (114) and Alaska in eighth. Rounding out the field is Cal State East Bay (104), Concordia (80.5) and Soka (56).
Day two of the championship will commence Thursday morning at 8 a.m. (AKST) from sunny California.
Note: The team points have diving scores included. Alaska, Simon Fraser and Soka do not field divers for the championship.