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Thursday, February 18, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Dan Ruettimann/KANSAN
Freestylers Andrew Billings, left, and Allan Chaney, are both from Fairbanks, Alaska.
Record rush is on for Alaskan swimmers
By Tom Stinson
Kansan sports writer
Mentioning Alaska usually brings to mind pipelines, snow and funny kisses.
Kansan sports writer
But for Kansas swimming coach Gary Kempf, sprint freestyle tops his list when the 49th state is mentioned.
Kansas sprinters Allan Chaney and Andrew Billings hail from Fairbanks, Alaska, and the two former West Valley High teammates are rewriting Kansas' recordbooks.
Chaney, a junior, in December broke his own 50-yard freestyle record from last year with a time of 20.84 seconds. Billings, a sophomore transfer from Alaska-Fairbanks, set the school record with a 45.34 in the 100-yard freestyle in December, and his 1:39.70 missed the 200-yard freestyle record by .01 of a second.
"I don't know how they got
here," Kempf said, "but if Alaska has any more swimmers like these two, we're going up there more often."
Kempf recruited Chaney after hearing of him from Alabama swimming coach Don Gambrill. Chaney was a five-time state champion at West Valley in the sprints.
Chaney visited Kansas on a recruiting trip, but Kempf traveled to Fairbanks to recruit Billings.
bulldogs, an NCAA Division II All-American in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events last season at Alaska-Fairbanks, came to Kansas after the school dropped its swimming program after the season.
Billings holds the Alaska state record in every freestyle event from the 50 to the 1,650.
"I liked Allan's work ethics," Kempf said. "So when Fairbanks
dropped its program, I contacted the coach about Andrew. It's worked out well."
Chaney and Billings started swimming on the same age-group team when they were about 10 years old and Chaney, who already had spent two years swimming for the Jayhawks, helped influence Billings in his decision to attend Kansas.
"I talked to him after they dropped the program," Chaney said, "and I told him it was fun here."
Billings liked what he heard about the swimming program at Kansas, but it was academics that was the deciding factor for the electrical engineering major.
The two friends said they enjoy swimming against each other is something they usually do not think about.
"I don't think about competing
since we're on the same team," said Chaney, a biology major. "We just want to go one-two. I don't worry about him beating me or me beating him."
In an Alaska meet last summer, the two traded the 50-yard freestyle state record four times until Billings finally posted the current record of 20.68 seconds.
"I don't like specifically competing with him," Billings said, "but I do like the competition on the Division I level. It will be good for me in the long run."
The long run for the pair consists of similar goals, and qualifying for the NCAA Championships is the most important.
If Chaney and Billings do make the NCAA qualifying standard, Kempf definitely will be spending his off-season near the Artic Circle.
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Required Qualifications*
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