FAIRBANKS - Alaska Nanooks are making up in quality what they’re lacking in quantity at the NCAA Division II Swimming Championships.

The Nanooks qualified a program-best six swimmers for nationals a year ago in Houston, but this season only Mariya Pavlovskaya and Felina Rosadiuk made the trip to Canton, Ohio.

Coach Scott Lemley likes their chances, however.

“Out of seven chances, there’s no doubt in my mind that they’ll make it to finals in at least one event,” Lemley said. “If they made it in two each, that would be great.”

The championships run today through Saturday at the C.T. Branin Natatorium, and making the finals — by placing among the top 16 in daytime qualifying, thus earning a spot in the evening heats — guarantees an All-American result. The top eight finishers become All Americans while ninth through 16th place earns honorable mention status.

Pavlovskaya, a junior from Korolev City, Russia, had one All-American result and two honorable mentions from the 2009 Championships, as she was seventh in the 400 individual medley and 15th in both the 200 IM and 200 backstroke.

Lemley thinks she can do even better this year, saying it’s “easily conceivable” she could be top eight in those three events. Today is the 200 IM, Thursday will be the 400 IM and Saturday is the 200 backstroke. She’ll also race the 100 backstroke on Friday.

“I think she’s peaking at just the right time,” Lemley said.

Pavlovskaya is seeded 10th in the 400 IM and 16th in the 200 IM.

Rosadiuk, meanwhile, is excelling in her only season with the Nanooks. A senior sprinter, she’ll race the 50 freestyle today, the 200 free on Thursday and the 100 free, her best event, on Saturday. She’s seeded 13th in the 100 and 22nd in the 200.

At Lathrop High School from 2001-04, Rosadiuk won seven state championships in freestyle races. That earned her a full-ride scholarship to Division I Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., but she never wound up swimming there. In 2006, she returned to Fairbanks to be a student and considered joining the Nanooks, but decided against it. Finally last fall she put on Alaska’s swimsuit.

“She’s been a really talented swimmer for the last 10 years, but her timing hasn’t worked out,” Lemley said. “This is the stage that she expected to be on long before this. Finally here she is.

“It’s her first and last shot so I think she’ll make the most of it.”

A year ago, a half-dozen Nanooks earned the opportunity to swim at nationals, and the team was represented in every event but the 200 butterfly.

Pavlovskaya made it back this year, but Samantha Zinsli and Mar Brunet graduated and Jacqueline van Driessche did not return to the team. Abbey Jackson, meanwhile, never overcame an ear drum problem this season while Courtney Nichols came up just short of qualifying. Another candidate, Kelly Becker, an honorable mention All American as a freshman in 2007, struggled with a nagging shoulder injury after returning following about an 18-month layoff.

“Sure, it’s a little disappointing,” Lemley said about qualifying just two swimmers this year. “We had some high team goals.”

The Nanooks, however, had a strong showing at the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference Championships, placing seventh of 15 teams, Lemley said. Many swimmers attained provisional NCAA B cuts this season but were unable to achieve the automatic A cut.