PULLMAN, Wash. – Junior Kendall Brown and freshman Alina Staffeldt posted victories on Saturday, but the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team fell to Pac-12 foe Washington State, 181-80, to come away with a weekend split for their trip to the Northwest.

"Yesterday's meet took a lot out of us and Washington State is a really good team," said head coach Andy Johns. "Even if we had swam as well as we did yesterday, it's a closer meet. That's what this trip was about though. It was about a tough turnaround against tough competition and our girls competed with the right attitude and gave great effort. We're ready to get back to training and get better."

The teams did not compete on the diving boards today with Washington State not fielding a diving squad. That left the dual meet with 14 swimming events, with the Lumberjacks winning two. Brown won the 1,000 freestyle for the third time this season, leading an NAU one-two finish with senior Caitlin Wright. Brown posted a time of 10:19.79 and Wright followed a time of 10:24.22, three seconds faster than the Cougars' top finisher in the third. Staffeldt picked up her third victory of the weekend – and fifth in three dual meets this season – with a 2:05.15 finish in the 200 butterfly.

Wright (500 free), senior Alexis Juergens (100 fly) and Brown (200 IM) posted runner-up finishes while freshman Melanie Harris recorded a pair of third-place finishes as NAU's top swimmer in both breaststrokes. Other top NAU swimmers picking up third-place finishes was junior Eva Pold in the 200 free, Juergens in the 50 free, freshman Roni Houck in the 100 free and freshman Claire Hammond in the 200 back.

After a day off from competition, the Lumberjack divers will travel south to Tucson, Ariz. for the Wildcat Diving Invitation from Nov. 21-23. The NAU swimmers are back in action in the team's next dual meet on Dec. 6 in their home opener versus New Mexico State in the Wall Aquatic Center.