Message From the Chancellor

This comment was just posted to our Facebook page by UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers:

"It was great to watch our four skiers compete today in the NCAA championships - skiing classical cross-country. I am impressed with their ability to handle the change in elevation -- Steamboat Springs is at 7,000 feet above sea level! On to Saturday's freestyle competition!"

Go NOOKS!

Mariya Pavlovskaya's 2nd All-American swim

Junior Mariya Pavlovskaya once again achieved Honorable Mention All-American status by winning the consolation heat of the 400 yard IM finishing in 9th place overall. She dropped over 3 seconds off her prelim swim which was already her best time this season. After her 11th place finish in the 200 IM, a 9th place finish in the 400 IM makes her two-for-two in events in which she's scoring points for the Nanooks.

"Nationals are a very important competition and it's really exciting for me as an athlete to be a part of such an anticipated and great event. It takes a lot of commitment, endurance, support and motivation to actually make it through the entire season and get here. Nationals are like a summary statement that provides a conclusion to everything you did throughout the year. As a team we started in September and worked all the way through to the end and we had some amazing victories both in the pool and in school. My teammates' achievements and attitude helped me significantly to reach where I am right now. Every day they would prove their highest ambitions and their powerful will. I'm thankful to be a part of such an amazing team.

This year Nationals take place in Canton, Ohio. It's pretty peaceful out here - no huge shiny buildings as in Houston, Texas, where nationals were held last year. This year our national team has been reduced to only two of us - Felina and me. Scott is the only coach who came here so it makes three of us from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. People here are not as friendly as in Fairbanks which makes me miss our campus a little. We got here on Sunday afternoon and settled down in one of the hotels which is close to the pool and the mall and all different kinds of restaurants.

On Monday and Tuesday we swam four times which was nice and relaxing after the plane ride and helped us to get a feel for the water. I was surprised that the water temperature was the same as in our pool at home because usually the pools we compete in are much warmer. The pool is pretty good, not counting that the showers are ice cold and there are no locks on the bathroom doors so you have to hold the door when you go in. It brings some challenges to the settled routine we're used to once we're at the pool.

There are many teams here and it's really challenging to get bleacher space. However, we are few and we managed to get a good spot and not get in anybody's way. Warming up in the main pool takes a lot of skill because it's overcrowded with swimmers who try to kick, sprint and do drills all at the same time.

On the first day of the meet I swam my 200 IM and I consider that swim as one of my best races this year. I felt really smooth and relaxed. It was a good start to the championships.

Today was my 400 IM and in the morning it felt harder than I expected. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get into the "big" finals finishing prelims in 10th place. In the afternoon, however, I felt much better and I didn't even feel tired afterwards. So far nationals are going pretty well for me: I swam my best times this season and I'm very excited for the two races that I have coming up.

Felina's thoughts going into her last event

This season has been a lot of fun. I was nervous at the beginning of the season: I wasn't sure how hard it would be for me to come back into the swimming scene after taking three years off. The girls on the team were very supportive in helping me get back into shape and get used to the demanding schedule. I'm surprised at how fast everything seemed to fall into place.

My best meet of the season so far was the Toshiba Classic, a big invitational held in Long Beach, California, every November. This is where I made my national cuts in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles. Thanks to that meet I'm able to enjoy the full experience of being a national level collegiate athlete. I was really excited coming into nationals for two reasons: the obvious reason is because it's nationals! but also because it's my last meet before I retire for a second time.

Our journey to nationals started with a very long flight from Fairbanks to Canton, Ohio. Mariya, Scott and I all managed to get stuck in middle seats on the three and a half hour flight to Seattle. Of course we all got "trapped" next to interesting characters . . . The next two flights from Seattle to Chicago and Chicago to Canton, though long, weren't nearly as bad because I was able to sit next to Mariya and Scott sat in the emergency exit row most of the way. To make a long story short, we left Fairbanks a one o'clock in the morning and arrived in Ohio at close to five in the afternoon after traveling through four time zones.

Monday and Tuesday we found ourselves at the pool both morning and afternoon to get used to the facility and work off the jet lag. The pool is a pretty nice 50-meter pool, separated by bulkheads with an attached diving well. On Monday we were able to stretch out and enjoy fairly empty lanes but when we arrived at the pool on Tuesday morning you'd have sworn the meet was just about to start! There were teams everywhere and it was a struggle to find calm water.
Nonetheless, we accomplished what we needed to do and Mariya and I were both sprinting very well and feeling ready for the meet to start.

Wednesday was the first day of the meet and I swam the 50 free. I was excited going into the 50 because this is the first time I've ever trained as a sprinter and I was feeling confident that I was going to have a fast swim. Unfortunately, I think my nerves got a hold of me. I pulled down in an awkward position on the start, which caused my shoulder to pop and consequently my start was delayed and my breakout suffered. In a 50 there just isn't enough time to make up for such a costly mistake. Even so, I was able to pull off a 24.24, a time just two tenths of a second off my lifetime best. Two tenths of a second doesn't sound like much to complain about but in a 50 it makes a world of difference, especially considering I had my heart set on breaking in to the 23s.

Today I was hoping to turn things around. The 200 free was my favorite event all through high school and I was a high school All American my junior year. I've been focusing mostly on my 100 free this season but with all the work I put in training at altitude over the break, I felt that I would have a very successful 200 as well. Once again, I was a little disappointed in how things turned out. I felt confident and relaxed in the moments leading up to the race. Sadly, after about 125 yards, I felt like my body hit a wall and I struggled to finish the race.

Thankfully I have Friday to recover from my last two events before I compete in the event I've been focusing on - the 100 free. I'm ranked very high going into the race and I'd love to make it into the championship final. It'll be a challenge, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to conquering. Only after I achieve this goal can I look forward to my second retirement and starting a whole new chapter in my life.

Thursday's Skiing Results from Championships

Alaska Nanooks senior Aurelia Korthauer was the top racer Thursday for the Blue and Gold as she finished 11th in the women's 5 kilometer classic race on the second day of the NCAA Skiing Championships. She crossed the finish line in a time of 17 minutes and 30.3 seconds, just missing a spot in the top 10 and All-American honors by 4.7 seconds.

Sophomore Theresia Schnurr finished 15th in 17:42.5, while junior John Parry and freshman Tyler Kornfield took 22nd (30:52.7) and 25th (31:00.0) in the men's 10k classic race.

Here's a message from head coach Scott Jerome about today's events:

Dear Friends of Alaska Nanooks Skiing:

We had a solid first day at the 2010 NCAA Skiing National Championships here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Senior Aurelia Korthauer led the way for the Nooks with a solid 11th place finish (out of 39) in the 5 km individual start classic event. She was less than five seconds out of All America honors.

Sophomore Theresia Schnurr placed 15th, another good result for the women. With only two women (out of a maximum of three for any one team), the Nanooks managed to place 7th out of 19 women's Nordic programs in the 5 km race. We even bested arch-rival Northern Michigan by two points.

Junior John Parry, in his first NCAA Championship, wowed his coaches by placing 22nd in the 10 km classic race. Though 22nd out of 39 may seem "middle of the road", this was an EXCELLENT race for John. He was only 14.8 seconds out of 12th place -- this race was very tight. Although John qualified in the 8th and final position from our central region for NCAAs, he placed 2nd among our regional competitors today. True freshman Tyler Kornfield also raced well placing 25th. The men finished 11th as a team today out of 19 teams, three points behind
NMU.

As a team, including yesterday's giant slalom alpine event, the Nanooks are in 13th place out of 22 teams. When we take alpine out of the picture, we are in 10th place among all Nordic teams.

On Saturday we have the mass start free technique races. The men's 20 km race starts at 9:00 am (one hour earlier than published) and the women's 15 km event begins at 11:00 am (also one hour earlier than published).

Today's weather was a bit crazy. Yesterday we skied on klister (klister all week, in fact), but it snowed all morning with the temperature just below freezing. We ended up on warm hard wax over a hard wax binder -- nothing like the wax we tested yesterday. Below the fresh snow was a hard, hard track of old, frozen granular and ice. It was a little tricky with the wax -- we wanted to get enough "kick" without compromising glide, but it it was a fine, fine line between the two. Assistant coach Matt Dunlap, former assistant coach Ingrid Olson, and senior captain Einar Often did an excellent job dialing in both the kick and glide waxes today. I can't thank them enough. (Einar skied over 35 km testing kick wax today from 8:00 am until around 11:15 am!)

I am, of course, very proud of our student-athletes. They did a very good job today despite stressful weather conditions. Not only did they race well, but they handled themselves professionally and showed a lot of class before, during, and after the races.

Thanks again for your ongoing support. More to come after Saturday's races.

Best regards,

Scott Jerome

PS: Complete results may be found at:
http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results10/ncaa10.htm

Mariya qualifies for consolation finals in the 400 IM

Mariya Pavolvskaya had the 10th fastest time during the preliminary heats of the 400 IM to qualify for the consolation finals tonight. Yesterday she finished 11th in the 200 IM earning Honorable Mention All American honors. Her time of 4:29.08 in the 400 IM is her fastest this season.

On the Road: Dion Knelsen

It's Wednesday night in Marquette, Michigan. I've been asked to write a blog about the road trip so far, and I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what to write. We really haven't done much. It's been pretty "business as usual," but for those who don't know what that means, I guess I will go ahead and explain.

We took the Red Eye out of Fairbanks Monday night/Tuesday morning, and arrived in Green Bay Tuesday afternoon around 4 PM (central time). We dropped off our stuff at the hotel, and pretty much went straight to the home arena of the Green Bay Gamblers USHL team for practice. To be honest, as much as I love hockey, it's usually not your first instinct to hit the ice after spending ten hours on airplanes and getting a combined total of three hours of sleep (if you thought putting your altitude-induced elephant feet into shoes was tough, try putting them into skates), but it's obviously the prudent thing to do heading into a weekend series. It's funny, though. Everyone always feels awful at the start of those fresh-off-the-plane practices, but you actually end up forgetting about all those factors after about fifteen minutes and you feel pretty good. It's kind of refreshing. So practice ended up being alright. There didn't seem to be any ill effects from the travel at all.

After that we went for a 9 PM supper at the Prime Quarter Steakhouse. You pretty much get to choose any cut of steak you want and then cook it yourself on a massive charcoal grill. It takes a long time, but everyone considers it well worth the wait when they are eating their huge ribeye or filet mignon. Yeah, we all love the road trip experience (after the flights). We get treated so well. For the rest of the night we all just did our own thing (which for most guys meant "sleeping").

Today we woke up around 8:30 for breakfast. We went to the "full breakfast buffet" at the hotel which offered a wide variety of filling breakfast entrées, including cereal and instant oatmeal. Nobody has a problem with free food, it's just less of a thrill when fruit loops are your only source of energy before practice.

Still, practice was great today. There's not much that can cause us to have a bad practice at this point in the year. The guys are so focused. There's not a lot talking about it, but we all know that we need to be solid in practice this week and have our best weekend of the year if we want to go to the Joe. The playoff butterflies are in the air. Just thinking about the Joe, and now the potential of a national tournament birth gives most of the guys goosebumps. I'm getting pretty anxious to play. Still, everyone knows that the key is to focus on the process and not the results, so we all pretty much have to force our thoughts onto the present and forget about possibilities. Regardless, this is the best part of the year. Who doesn't love playoff time?

We then drove to Marquette from Green Bay, which took us about three and a half hours. We then had a very nice dinner in the upper room of our hotel, the Landmark Inn (an incredibly classy and expensive looking place that is apparently haunted. Look it up) and then were given a few hours to relax. We really do get spoiled.

Later in the evening we went bowling as a team. For humility's sake, I'm not going to go into detail about my team of Andy Taranto, Dustin Sather, and Scott Greenham winning the combined team score event and subsequently earning desserts for ourselves tomorrow, but we absolutely dominated. Actually, we barely slipped into first. It was pretty close between us and Cody Rymut, Coach Meisner, Derek Bradish, and Adam Cardwell's team. There are a lot of good bowlers on the team, especially considering most guys only go once or twice a year. I think everyone had a lot of fun.

Tomorrow, we have a 9 AM breakfast and a 5 PM practice with nothing scheduled in between. That means around seven hours of guilt-free time killing. We are going to have to find something fun to do.

In the evening we will have a video session and then we will all attempt to get a good night's rest before the first big game.

That's about the gist of what goes on while we are away from Fairbanks. Thanks for reading, but better yet, thanks for the support of the team as we set out to bring a championship to Fairbanks.

Dion

Go Nooks!

Hockey Prepares for Northern Michigan

The Alaska Nanooks Hockey team took to the ice this week after a very long road trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Nanooks go into Green Bay and stayed there on Tuesday night at a hotel right beside the Green Bay Packers training facility and Lambeau Field.

The Nanooks left Green Bay and practiced just before leaving for Marquette, MI where they will face Northern Michigan on Friday and Saturday.

Scott Greenham is on top of his game making a save at the beginning of practice

The Alaska defense working in the neutral zone to start a drill

Colin Rundell watches a shot go wide

The team huddles up, led by head coach Dallas Ferguson, to game plan

Alaska will practice tomorrow at Northern Michigan before they take the ice for the first game of the best-of-three series against the host Wilcatst at 3:35 AST on Friday afternoon.