FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The two-time defending Western Athletic Conference champion Northern Arizona swimming & diving team makes their first appearance of the 2015-16 season this Friday at the Wall Aquatic Center in their 20th annual Pentathlon. The intrasquad Pentathlon will be free for all fans to attend and will start at 2 p.m.

"The Pentathlon favors the more distance-oriented swimmer because of the recovery aspect of the event or the well-rounded individual medley swimmer," said head coach Andy Johns. "But really it is an opportunity to see everyone race and sometimes we find out some things about swimmers that we didn't know about. It's a high quality training session and we're going to gather a lot of information from Friday's races to use as a springboard into the next part of the season."

The Pentathlon is a five event swimming-only meet consisting of five events. The NAU swimmers will compete in the 200 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 100 freestyle with quick turnarounds between each event.

Each swimmer will receive points based on their finishing times in each event to determine an overall meet winner. Last year's top three Pentathlon finishers – seniors Kendall Brown and Monica Pruett and junior Jori Lindquist – lead the crop of Lumberjack swimmers competing on Friday. Brown totaled a meet-high 3,580 points despite posting a high-finish of fourth in the backstroke showcasing her overall success last year across all five events. Pruett totaled 3,410 points, and won the 200 IM event, to finish second and Lindquist placed third with 3,300 points.

Other returning Pentathlon event winners include senior Brooke Brittain in the 100 backstroke, junior Urte Kazakeviciute in the 100 breaststroke and sophomore Alina Staffeldt in the 100 freestyle.

Friday will also mark the NAU debuts for the team's six swimming newcomers. Junior transfer Hayley Edmond as well as freshmen Ila Hughes, Logan Neal, Andrea Schmidt, Amanda Sumrow and Sarah Takach will look to make a strong first impression in their Lumberjack suit in the grueling Pentathlon.

The Lumberjack divers will make their season debut in two weeks in NAU's second intrasquad meet, the annual Blue vs. Gold meet, on Oct. 9.