Four Nanooks Swim For Bests At PCSC Championships :: Nanooks continue to swim well at conference meet

Feb. 14, 2008

LONG BEACH, CA- Four Alaska Nanook swimmers gave it their all in the water Thursday, achieving their career or lifetime bests in their respective events. Those performances helped bring the Nanooks' two-day total to 152 points.

The 50 freestyle was where Nanook senior Karin Wagner swam her best collegiate time and fastest since her freshman year in high school (2001) in 25.72 seconds. Sophomore Jacqueline van Driessche finished second amongst Alaska swimmers in the event (25.82) and first-year swimmer Erin Widby notched her season best of 27.41 seconds.

Alaska saw several finalists coming out of the preliminary swims in the morning, including junior Sam Zinsli, who was seeded 10th in the 500 freestyle with an NCAA "B" cut (5:11.27). However, Zinsli was unable to make the jump to an "A" cut in the finals despite cutting her time by almost two seconds (05:09.24). Rookie Kinsey Laine was slated 22nd (5:21.54) after the morning session but her preliminary time stood as her best of the day. Freshman Heidi Tilicki did not make the finals after finishing the preliminary race in 5:27.40.

In the 200 individual medley, freshman Mariya Pavlovskaya was seeded in 16th place (2:13.45); however two of her teammates swam for their lifetime bests, with junior Amanda Hartman finishing in 2:24.01 and junior Joann Kump touching the wall in 2:26.84.

The Nanooks return to the water Friday morning at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool.