Diving photo courtesy of Eric Smith

HOUSTON, Texas – In the heart of Texas where football reigns supreme, the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team scored a figurative touchdown on the first day of the 2016 Western Athletic Conference Championships. Behind a dramatic, come-from-behind 200 medley relay victory and an outstanding day by their divers, the Lumberjacks are off to a rousing start in first place with 147 points at the end of the opening day.

"This is one of the best starts we've ever had," said head coach Andy Johns. "It was a perfect start. With Lex (Geiger) and Chelsea (Jackson) going one-two (in diving), you can't ask for anything more than that. The back half of the medley relay was super fast. Everything went well tonight and we're excited about what that means through the rest of the meet. But this meet is seven sessions, and we still have a lot of work to do."

The two-time defending WAC champs showed they meant business from the opening morning session when the Lumberjacks placed all six of their divers in scoring positions. Freshman Christina Torrente won the morning's consolation 1-meter diving title, and NAU had four of its divers in the top five of the diving preliminaries.

That seemed to set the first day in motion, and the energy was quickly picked up with the 'Jacks claiming their first-ever 200 medley relay title as a member of the WAC and their first since 1988. The win put the rest of the conference on notice, as the Lumberjacks seemingly came out of nowhere – literally and figuratively.

Seeded with the sixth-best time out of eight schools, NAU sat in fifth at the halfway point of the race before sophomore Alina Staffeldt blazed past every one of her competitors on the butterfly leg. Sophomore Roni Houck took over as the anchor and did not relinquish the lead as the quartet – also featuring juniors Sara Lenhoff and Urte Kazakeviciute – shaved off almost six seconds from their entry time to win with a time of 1:41.45.

"Honestly I don't remember any of it," Houck said. "We're supposed to just get up and race and we had amazing finishes and take-offs. Winning that relay gave us a lot of spirit and energy. It was really a great feeling."

With a gold medal finish in the first event, the Lumberjacks went to work on the other side of the pool on the 1-meter springboards. Junior Alexa Geiger was far from the only diving star, but she did manage to claim her first career WAC gold medal with a career-best score of 302.30. The score also moves her into the top five on NAU's all-time top performances chart.

"It feels amazing and so surreal," Geiger said. "I'm a little in shock; it still doesn't feel like it happened. Today was exactly what (the divers) needed. We were all excited coming into this meet, and we all knew we were going to kill it together."

Geiger was joined in the championship top eight final by seniors Chelsea Jackson and Carlye Townsend and freshman Raquel Gonzales following an exceptional morning session. Jackson finished runner-up to Geiger with a score of 287.85, while Townsend posted her highest individual conference finish in fifth with a score of 263.80. Gonzales, making her championship debut, placed eighth with a score of 240.10.

The divers were rounded out by Torrente's ninth-place finish and sophomore Emma Simmonds in 15th. In addition to all six NAU divers scoring points for the team in the first of three diving events this week, Geiger and Jackson's tag team of the top two spots is the Lumberjacks' first-ever one-two finish at the WAC Championships.

"It's really hard to get six divers to perform every dive perfectly, and we didn't, but we performed very well top to bottom," said diving coach Nikki Huffman. "Lex and Chelsea really brought it today and it could've gone either way. Our freshmen stepped up, Emma bounced back and Carlye did a great job. Day one was really awesome."

Not to be outdone, the Lumberjacks once again outswam their seeding position in the night's final event – the 800 freestyle relay. After sophomores Kimmy Richter and Claire Hammond and junior Hayley Edmond put the 'Jacks within striking distance, Staffeldt nearly completed a perfect three-for-three night for NAU. Staffeldt closed hard on the final leg by over three seconds, but NAU settled for runner-up behind Bakersfield with a time of 7:19.45. The time was a full 20 seconds faster than NAU's previous season-best time.

At the end of an exciting first day, NAU leads Bakersfield by 62 points.

The Lumberjacks pick up the action Thursday morning with morning preliminary sessions in the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and 3-meter diving at 9:30 a.m. MT. The finals session will start at 5 p.m. MT and will also include the 200 freestyle relay. Fans can watch the finals session for free at wacsports.com/live.