Left and right photos courtesy of Don Elmore

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Northern Arizona swimming & diving team stacked a total of 19 athletes into the Day 3 finals at the WAC Championships, but no result was bigger than freshman Alina Staffeldt's record breaking performance en route to winning the 100 butterfly. Behind Staffeldt's swim, the Lumberjacks will head into the final day of the championships one step closer to a conference repeat in first place with 478 points, ahead of New Mexico State who is at 383 points.

Staffeldt gave herself the chance to win her first ever WAC gold medal following a blistering time of 54.34 that was the fastest in the preliminaries. Her prelim time was already fast enough to break the six-year old school record previously held by Rachael Foe, but Staffeldt one-upped herself in the finals blowing past her competitors to post an even faster time of 53.86. The time is Staffeldt's first NCAA 'B' standard time as well.

"Alina was so strong finishing both of her races this morning and tonight," said head coach Andy Johns. "In her last 25 (yards), she came from behind and she looked awesome. She works really hard and it's really good to see it pay off like it did tonight. She was also huge for us on the last leg of our medley relay. I'm really proud of her."

Senior Alexis Juergens joined Staffeldt in the 100 fly championship heat and placed seventh with a time of 55.80. Sophomore Sara Lenhoff surprised the conference in the prelims, posting a lifetime-best time of 57.11, more than four seconds faster than her season-best time, and wound up scoring points for the Lumberjacks in 15th in the finals.

The evening got off to a resounding start as juniors Kendall Brown and Monica Pruett and freshman Melanie Harris went two-three-four in the 400 IM finals. The trio all improved on their preliminary times with Brown notching her second consecutive runner-up finish in the event, nearly missing a 'B' cut time of 4:19.71. Pruett followed with a lifetime-best time of 4:22.63, placing her fourth all-time in school history, which nailed down her first career WAC medal. After besting her season-best time by over nine seconds in the prelims, Harris crushed her prelims time in the finals to finish fourth at 4:24.44.

Lenhoff was just getting started in the 100 fly as she clocked a time of 55.59 to earn her second straight bronze medal in the 100 backstroke. Lenhoff was one of two Lumberjacks in the finals as sophomore Jori Lindquist finished in sixth place – her best personal finish at the conference meet – with a time of 57.70. Speaking of personal best finishes, junior Trinity Frazee scored points for NAU for the first time in her career, finishing 10th after posting a season-best time of 57.14. Redshirt junior Alex Huff made it four scorers for NAU in the event one spot behind in 11th with a season-best time of 57.32.

Sophomore Urte Kazakeviciute placed fourth in the 100 breaststroke with a lifetime-best time of 1:02.90, moving her into second all-time in school history. Harris, who like Lenhoff had a busy day swimming in two finals, placed eighth in the finals with a time of 1:04.58.

In the 200 freestyle, freshman Claire Hammond posted a time of 1:52.01 and moved up a spot to sixth overall after qualifying seventh during the prelims for her first career top eight finish. Freshman Roni Houck followed up her 50 free bronze medal performance on Thursday with a 12th place finish in the consolation. Houck turned in a time of 1:53.08.

Lenhoff, Kazakeviciute, Juergens and Staffeldt's efforts in the 400 medley relay earned the 'Jacks their second relay medal of the meet, finishing in third with a season-best time of 3:44.58.

"Today started with the 400 IM and it took off from there both this morning and tonight," Johns said. "Everybody fed off of each other's results and they were solid this morning and as good or better tonight. Sara Lenhoff swam five 100s today and she was tough all around. Melanie Harris did the 400 IM and the 100 breaststroke and did a great job. Everyone is rallying and today was a good day."

The divers concluded their competition at the WAC Championships on platform with three of their athletes reaching the 'A' final. Junior Chelsea Jackson wrapped up her week with a team-best fourth place finish notching a season-best score of 204.85. Jackson was able to climb three spots after the prelims by improving on her morning score by nearly 30 points and was less than a point from making it onto the podium.

Sophomore Alexa Geiger finished seventh with a score of 185.05 and junior Carlye Townsend rounded out the top eight with her own personal-best platform score of 180.85. Townsend improved her finish from a year ago by four spots. Meanwhile freshman Emma Simmonds won the consolation final with a season-best score of 178.05.

For the championships, all four Lumberjack scoring divers scored points with three of them scoring on all three boards. Of the 11 possible finishes between the four of them, nine came in the top eight.

"I think we did a great job on platform and the fact that we had all four girls in the top nine was huge," said diving coach Nikki Huffman. "I couldn't be happier with their performances. They all did a great job, even Alyssa (Loeffelman). She's a non-scorer but she also dove great over the last three day. It's always exciting to get great performances from all of them and overall they were all excellent."

The fourth and final day of the WAC Championships begin at 9:30 a.m. Arizona time on Saturday. The morning session will include preliminaries for the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly. The mile freestyle will start at 2 p.m. before the finals start at 5 p.m. The meet will wrap up with the four finals and end with the final relay, the 400 free relay.

"We're fortunate to be in the position that we are heading into the last day," Johns said. "There won't be any more diving and their points were big for us once again today. The 200 strokes are definitely strong suits for us and we're looking forward to putting ourselves in a position to defend the title in the morning preliminaries. Today should give everyone confidence going into tomorrow to do what we do best."

NAU Athletics on Facebook and @NAUSwimDive on Twitter will have updates throughout the day. Also head to www.wacsports.com for live result and live video links.