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FAIRBANKS — Nearly two years ago, Kinsey Laine of the Alaska Nanooks swam the 1,650-yard freestyle — then told a teammate she’d never do the grueling event again.

On Friday night, Laine, now a junior, dominated college swimming’s version of the marathon by covering 66 lengths of the Patty Center Pool in 18 minutes, 26.68 seconds. Her effort helped the Nanooks to a 108-95 dual meet victory over California University of Pennsylvania.

“I volunteered for it,” Laine said, adding that due to the graduation of distance specialist Samantha Zinsli the team needed her there.

Laine spotted California freshman Megan Schuh almost six seconds early in the race, then expertly held her pace — all but two of her 50-meter splits were in the 33-second range — as Schuh faded and finished third nearly 30 seconds behind. Alaska’s Heidi Tilicki was runner-up in 18:47.66.

“I could definitely see how far I was behind, but I wasn’t too worried,” said Laine, a native of Silver Lake, Wash. “I try and just take it out nice and easy because I know that eventually the other people will die, and hopefully I’ll catch up. And it worked this time.”

One reason the distance isn’t so daunting is that twice this summer Laine raced farther in open-water events. She did a 1.2-mile relay leg of the Sourdough Triathlon and went 5 kilometers — without a wetsuit no less — in the inaugural Chena Splash.

For an encore, Laine ran the Equinox Marathon on Sept. 20. She placed 28th among women in 4 1/2 hours and while surrounded by teammates at the finish line called the distance “easy.” However, she was sore for a week afterward, she admitted Friday.

“My ultimate goal is to do an Ironman (triathlon),” Laine explained.

“If I want to do an Ironman, I have to be able to run a marathon, and the cross training helped so much. That’s why I feel so good swimming distance right now.”

Alaska coach Scott Lemley fully supported Laine’s endurance adventures.

“Not only does it say a lot about her commitment to training over the summer, but that just gave her a huge boost of confidence,” he said.

Freshman Meghan O’Leary of Seward also gained confidence by coming from behind to win her first college race, the 200 backstroke, in 2:17.52.

“A strong kick is definitely what I try to use at the end,” said O’Leary, who was keeping a peripheral eye on California’s Georgia Emert before she pulled away in the last two lengths.

Strong finishes keyed the win over the Vulcans. The Nanooks also got a victory from Felina Rosadiuk (who nearly broke a pool record with 53.95 in the 100 freestyle) and two apiece from Kelly Becker (200 freestyle and 200 butterfly) and Mariya Pavlovskaya (who dominated the 400 IM and 200 breaststroke).

Becker edged Bruna Carvalho in the butterfly by 0.14 seconds.

“The saying we have is that you win the race at the end. You don’t win the race at the beginning,” Lemley said. “We work on lunging at the finish constantly, and we won several races that were very close (on Friday).”

In the 50 free, California’s Melissa Gates shattered the Patty Center Pool’s oldest remaining record — set by Cindy Roppel of Sitka High School in 1983 — by more than a half-second in 24.23.

The teams clash again in a short-format meet at noon today.

Contact staff writer Matias Saari at 459-7591.