Adams wins individual title
February 19, 2013
Jamie Foland
907-474-6807
Sophomore Margot Adams (Anchorage, Alaska/Political science) repeated as a conference champion as Alaska had four swimmers compete in a championship final on Friday at the 2013 Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference Championship at the La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center.
Adams once again claimed the individual PCSC win in the 100 butterfly as she turned in a time of 55.48 seconds, which was three-quarters of a second faster than her preliminary time (56.23), which placed her third for the final. With the victory she captured her second 100 fly title and the program's third conference title ever in an individual event. She did all this while losing her goggles during the race.
Junior Bente Heller (Hamburg, Germany/Communication) took fourth in the 200 freestyle with a season-best and NCAA B-cut time of 1:51.54. That time was nearly a two-second improvement from her preliminary race (1:53.51), which seeded her third.
Two other Nanooks also claimed All-PCSC accolades as sophomores Danielle Lyons (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan/Biological sciences) and Gabi Summers (Cheyenne, Wyo./Foreign Language) competed against one another in the 400 individual medley final. Lyons finished fifth with a time of 4:33.94 while Summers followed in sixth in a season-best time of 4:37.50.
Lyons also took 10th in the 200 free with a B-cut time of 1:55.21, which was an improvement of her 14th-place swim (1:56.89) in preliminaries. Also in the 200, Summers once again followed Lyons in 11th place after hitting the wall in 1:55.96, which was a tenth faster (1:56.06) than in prelims.
On the relay side, the tandem of Heller, Adams, senior Sarah Meierotto (Fairbanks, Alaska/Biological sciences) and Lyons produced fourth-place finish in the 400 medley relay. The foursome completed the race in 3:52.06, which surpassed the B-cut standard and set a new varsity record, but the leadoff swimmer set the tone with a program record as well.
Heller completed the backstroke portion of the race with an NCAA A-cut and varsity-record time of 55.09 seconds, which automatically qualifies the junior for that race at next month's NCAA Championship in Birmingham, Ala. That split time ranks second in all of NCAA Division II this year.
“I'm not often surprised by times our swimmers are able to achieve at big meets,” head coach Scott Lemley said. “I see them every day, twice a day in practice and I know their level of commitment. But I didn't see this coming.”
He continued, “ lead off swim tonight was astounding. I can truthfully say she was primarily responsible for our relay team making the 'B' cut and in the process broke our varsity record by nearly three seconds.”
Other contributing swimmers included sophomore Genevieve Johnson (Fresno, Calif./Fisheries), freshmen Eileen Audette (Seward, Alaska/Fisheries) and Linnea Doumas (Tucson, Ariz./Foreign Language) and senior Sarah Meierotto (Fairbanks, Alaska/Biological sciences).
Johnson rounded out the top 20 in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:00.91, two spots higher than her preliminary swim of 22nd place (1:00.86). She also swam in a bonus heat in the 100 breaststroke, which she finished in 1:11.99.
Audette complete the 100 breast consolation with a season-best mark of 1:08.91 while Doumas won the bonus heat in the 100 backstroke with a lifetime-best time of 1:02.38. Meierotto competed in a pair of individual races Friday night as she hit the wall with a lifetime-best time of 1:02.99 in the 100 fly and later registered a time of 1:10.29 in the 100 breast.
Due to a malfunction on the PCSC website, full results were not available but Alaska sits in eighth place out of 13 teams with one day of the championship to go.
The fourth and final day will begin Saturday morning at 8 a.m. (AKST).