Oct. 13, 2007

Results

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The Alaska Nanook swimmers turned in another solid day in the water, pacing them to a sixth place finish out of nine teams at the Pacific Coaches' Swim Conference Invitational Saturday in Southern California.

Head coach Scott Lemley was pleased with the Nanooks performance, especially considering the team traveled 12 swimmers to compete in the two-day event: less than half the number of swimmers carried by the other eight participating teams, who rostered 25-30 competitors.

The Nanooks best showings of the day were a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 400 meter medley relay and the 1500 meter freestyle relay. In the 400 meter medley relay, senior Sam Zinsli anchored the team composed of Jacqueline vanDriessche, Kelly Becker and Mariya Pavlovskaya, who combined for 4:11.92.

"I thought we did pretty well: that's only five seconds off our team record," Lemley said. "For the first meet of the season that's not too bad."

In the 1500 (or 3x500) meter freestyle relay Lemley used his three best distance swimmers, Zinsli, Becker and freshman Kinsey Lane for the race that he noted is not a normally contested event. The Nanooks paced for a 16:15.34.

Alaska's season continues in Fairbanks next weekend, when it hosts Division I Loyola Marymount University for meets on Oct. 20-21 at the Patty Center Pool. The first race on Saturday is at 5 p.m., while the start signal will sound at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.