SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Defending a championship is never easy, but behind a dominant team performance the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team made winning a second consecutive Western Athletic Conference title look simple.
Nearly a month after besting their conference opposition in San Antonio, Texas on their way to a conference championship for the second year in a row, the Lumberjacks' successful title defense is just as impressive now as it was on the night of Feb. 28.
"Team depth wins championships," said head coach Andy Johns. "We won two events last year and we only won two events again this year. We were the only school in the conference to place at least one athlete in the top eight of every event and we're really proud of that. On top of that, our exhibition athletes would have scored in at least one of their events if they were official scorers. That speaks to our depth and that's what we rely on."
Indeed, the Lumberjacks were the only team to have a representative in the top scoring final in all 16 individual events. Furthermore, all 20 NAU scoring athletes earned a scoring spot in the top 16 of their event at least once marking the second straight championship meet the team has been able to accomplish that.
The 20 athletes all together totaled 48 appearances in either a championship or consolation heat with nearly 65 percent (31-of-48) of those appearances coming in the top eight 'A' final.
The Lumberjack diving quartet of juniors Chelsea Jackson and Carlye Townsend, sophomore Alexa Geiger and freshman Emma Simmonds made a statement from the get-go. On the first night of WAC Championship competition, the foursome all dove their way into the top eight on 1-meter setting the tone for NAU in the meet's first individual event.
"Diving is the first event and the fact that we had all four of our scoring divers in the top eight was huge," said diving coach Nikki Huffman. "With all of them in there, plus the fact that Alyssa (Loeffelman) would've scored points as well (if she was an official scorer) was great. One-meter started us off well."
Together, the four divers in addition to freshman Alyssa Loeffelman, proved to the entire conference that they were the deepest unit and it continued to show throughout the meet. Jackson would go on to win her first career gold medal on 3-meter and along with Geiger placed in the top eight on all three boards. Townsend earned a pair of top eight finishes and Simmonds won the platform consolation final to cap three personal scoring events.
"What I like most about my team is that they may miss a dive or have a bad event but they come back strong," Huffman said. "This team does a great job of pushing through and they support each other. I was very proud of all of their performances at conference."
Behind a tremendous showing by the team's divers, the Lumberjack swimmers were masterful in the pool and they got things rolling during the prelim session of the second day. Coming into the meet seeded 15th in the 200 IM, junior Monica Pruett was the igniter on the swimming side racing her way to a fourth-place preliminary finish in the event by shaving off nearly six seconds from her seeded time. Following Pruett's swim, the Lumberjacks – who did not have a WAC Swimmer of the Week the entire season – were off to the races.
"Monica's 200 IM swim on Thursday morning was the spark for us," Johns said. "It was such a great swim and that really stands out. Monica has gotten better every year and these were breakthrough milestone swims for her. When you have those types of performances, it's infectious. It gave everyone confidence."
NAU took full advantage of its depth in the first individual swimming final – the 500 freestyle – with junior Kendall Brown bronze medal finish leading five 'Jacks in the top 16. That performance spearheaded an outstanding second night which pulled NAU into first place in the team standings and the defending champions never relinquished that edge.
Freshman Alina Staffeldt owned the third night of competition with her school record breaking performance in the 100 butterfly. Staffeldt posted an NCAA 'B' standard time of 53.86 to win NAU's second gold medal of the championships – and her first career gold medal – and break the six-year old school record. Also highlighting the third night was Brown, Pruett and freshman Melanie Harris going two-three-four in the 400 IM.
Entering the final night of the meet with a 95-point edge over New Mexico State, NAU put its pedal to the medal in the mile freestyle. Senior Caitlin Wright, who was severely ill just three nights earlier, persevered and powered her way to a silver medal finish in the mile and was followed by Brown on the podium.
Wright and Brown's medals were the first two of five on the final night, as the Lumberjacks flexed their muscles collecting medals in four of the five individual events to seal up the championship by 127 points over New Mexico State – an even bigger margin of victory than last year when NAU bested Idaho by 101 points.
The recipe for success was the team's depth and rising to the occasion was NAU's freshmen class. Of the team's nine true freshmen on the roster, six – Claire Hammond, Harris, Roni Houck, Kimmy Richter, Simmonds and Staffeldt – were among the Lumberjacks' scoring squad. Facing the heat of their first ever collegiate conference championships, the freshmen failed to crumble under pressure accounting for 239 points – or just shy of 36 percent of the team's total.
"Expectations were high for our freshmen and they performed really well," Johns said. "Alina's 100 butterfly was the highlight of the meet and it got us through the Friday night session. But all of our scoring freshmen scoring in at least one top eight final and that's outstanding. We couldn't ask for a whole lot more and they also played big parts in relays. We needed them to show up like that and we're excited that we get a few more years with them."
Two of the team's three seniors, Wright and Alexis Juergens, also performed admirably considering their bouts with illnesses leading up to and even during the meet itself. Wright's second place finish in the mile was the standout, but Juergens, as well as the team's third senior Alex Huff, also both scored individually and as part of relays.
"Alexis came back from mono in January and swam right on her best times were big swims," Johns said. "The fact that Caitlin was in urgent care on Wednesday to make the consolation final of the 500 (freestyle) on Thursday was big and then her mile was one of the toughest things I've seen in my coaching career. Our seniors did a great job and had the right attitude and approach."
Brown earned a team-best three individual medals while Jackson, Geiger, Staffeldt and sophomore Sara Lenhoff all picked up two medals.
Staffeldt was the team's high scorer totaling 65.5 points with freshman Roni Houck scoring 58.5 points. The pair scored points in each of their three individual events while contributing on three relays apiece.
Along with Jackson and Geiger on the diving boards, Brown, Harris and Pruett all placed in the top eight of their three individual events. Meanwhile aside from the freshmen, juniors Lindsay Clark-Warren and Trinity Frazee both earned night scoring swims for the first time in their careers in a memorable meet for the entire team.
"We had athletes that didn't swim at night last year but did get to swim at night this year shows progress," Johns said. "There are just a lot of good memories that happened at that meet for us."
The momentum carried into March as Jackson and Geiger represented the Lumberjacks at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo. Going head-to-head against the premier divers in the region, Jackson and Geiger more than held their own. Jackson came closest to qualifying for the NCAA Championships with a pair of finals appearances on 1-meter and 3-meter at the zone meet while Geiger was not far off from advancing to the finals herself.
"Chelsea and Lex both dove very consistently which you have to do at Zones," Huffman said. "Lex did some really good things and if she was just a little better she would've been finals. She was a lot more comfortable being in that meet with the big players. Chelsea was fighting all the time and there were times where she was in a qualifying spot (for nationals) during the round. She knows now that she can compete with the best and the fact that we're competing with them, if we can be a little sharper at this meet we'll get divers to nationals next year."
Even after two straight WAC championships, the well is far from dry and the scary thing for the conference is that the Lumberjacks may be even better next year. Unlike a year ago where the team faced the task of replacing a graduating senior class of nine, the 'Jacks will lose just three seniors this year, none of whom are divers. In all, NAU's projected returners will have accounted for all but 10 percent of this year's 666 points providing exciting opportunities a year from now.
"We are extremely excited in anticipation of being even better," Johns said. "That's a very real possibility. The group of swimmers we have committed to come here can replace the loss of our seniors and then some. Coach Huffman has signed a top diver and the new facility is paying off in that respect because she is starting to get some tower divers."
"This team improves every year and we always perform well at the end of the year," Huffman added. "The whole (diving) team is coming back and they're just going to gel even more. We're going to be that much stronger and we're really excited about that."
The 2015 WAC Championships will be one to remember but given that NAU is slated to be even more talented next year; two championships are great, but three is thrice as nice.
Do not expect the 'Jacks to relax now because they are as driven as ever.
