LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Sophomore Alexa Geiger won the 3-meter competition and junior Kendall Brown led a strong showing for the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team in the 500 freestyle among the highlights of the Lumberjacks' first day at the UNLV Invitational. Brown placed third in the 500 free while Geiger led all four NAU divers in the top five completing a successful team performance to begin the three-day invite.

The NAU divers performed exceptionally as a unit, occupying four-fifths of the top five in the 3-meter competition. Geiger was first during the prelims and finished first in the championship heat, recording a score of 279.00 besting her previous season-high. Yet, Geiger was not the only impressive Lumberjack diver on Saturday.

Freshman Emma Simmonds improved her prelims standing by three spots, placing third overall in the finals with a season-best score of 243.40. Junior Carlye Townsend wound up a spot behind Simmonds in fourth overall with a score of 237.10 and freshman Alyssa Loeffelman rounded out NAU's crew in fifth with a finals score of 234.60. Loeffelman recorded her best 3-meter score of her young career in the prelims (245.20).

Meanwhile in the pool, Brown moved up two spots from the prelims to finish third in the 500 free by posting a time of 4:56.96, setting a new season-high by almost eight seconds. Also placing in the top 10 of the event was senior Caitlin Wright, who placed ninth with a time of 4:58.46 – more than five seconds faster than her previous fastest time this season. Freshman Kimmy Richter was one spot out of the top 10 in 11th, with a time of 5:05.55, while junior Eva Pold also earned a night time swim finishing 17th.

One week after winning both of the sprint events in NAU's dual win against New Mexico State, freshman Roni Houck was the Lumberjacks' top finisher in the 50 freestyle, placing 10th with a season-best time of 23.76. Senior Alexis Juergens and freshman Alina Staffeldt placed 18th and 20th respectively with times of 23.76 and 23.92.

NAU's relay teams also swam well led by the quartet of sophomore Jori Lindquist, sophomore Urte Kazakeviciute, Juergens and Houck in the 400 medley relay. The group posted a time of 3:47.91, nearly seven seconds better than their time entering the day, to finish fourth in the event. The 'B' relay team finished eighth with a time of 3:50.34. NAU's 'A' 200 freestyle relay team of Juergens, Lindquist, Staffeldt and Houck posted a season-best time of 1:35.48 to place sixth.

In the day's only other individual event – the 200 IM – the Lumberjacks did not place a swimmer in the night swims. Brown posted the team's fastest time, 2:13.27, in the prelims and was followed closely by Lindquist and freshman Melanie Harris by less than four-tenths of a second among NAU's top three swimmers in the 200 IM.

Competition continues on the second day of the invitational on Sunday with preliminaries starting at 10 a.m. Flagstaff time.