AUSTIN, Texas – A grueling four days in Austin came to an end on Saturday with positive performances all the way around by the Northern Arizona swimmers. With four evening swims on the last day of the Texas Invitational, NAU finished the meet with 12 individual finals swims overall.
 
"The night swims were better for everyone," said head coach Andy Johns. "The mile was pretty good for us across the board, and I'm really happy with how the final relay stepped up and swam well in the end. It was really tough competition, and I can't tell how many times I heard 'that's the fastest time in the country.' It was unbelievable and I'm really pleased overall."
 
The Lumberjacks' three distance swimmers performed well in the demanding 1,650 freestyle with redshirt junior Monique King clocking the best time of 16:42.36. King's 14th-place finish was the best by any 'Jack this week, and her time was over 11 seconds faster than her previous season-best. Freshman Sam Milewski (16:57.59) and senior Kimmy Richter (17:02.56) also turned in season-best times to place 18th and 20th respectively.
 
Of the Lumberjacks to swim at night, junior Sarah Takach and senior Alina Staffeldt displayed the biggest improvement between the morning prelims and the evening finals in the 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly respectively. After touching the wall in 2:21.02 to qualify for the breaststroke finals, Takach placed 22nd overall with a time of 2:18.95. Staffeldt would win the butterfly 'D' final with a time of 2:01.23 – more than three seconds faster than her qualifying time – to finish 25th overall.
 
Junior Andrea Schmidt accompanied Staffeldt in the 200 fly finals, competing in the 'C' heat and placing 24th. Her best swim occurred in the morning with a time of 2:02.07. In the 200 backstroke, freshman Sarah O'Connor posted a time of 2:03.80 – just off her prelim time of 2:03.71 – to finish 31st.
 
NAU got two season-best performances by senior Roni Houck (51.41) and freshman Elisa Rodriguez (51.81) in the 100 free, and freshman Niamh McDonagh rounded out NAU's competitors with a time of 2:08.14 in the 200 fly.
 
Ending the meet on a high note, Rodriguez, Richter, King and Houck set a new season-best in the 400 freestyle relay by more than two seconds at 3:27.59.
 
Swimming against four top 25 teams and a host of other quality teams, the overall meet was a great learning experience for the 10 Lumberjack swimmers as the team nears the end of the first half of the season.
 
"The biggest takeaway is learning how to race against some of the best, and that will help come conference," Johns said. "We did a lot of racing from the outside lanes and we have to learn that we can win from any lane. They got some valuable experience moving forward for sure."
 
NAU returns to action as a whole squad on Saturday, Dec. 16 with a dual meet at San Diego before the winter break.