LIVE VIDEO (PRELIMS)
LIVE VIDEO (FINALS)
HOUSTON, Texas – The divers nearly posted a perfect result and the swimmers rallied for a relay win in what amounted to a 40-point lead for the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team on the first day of the 2018 WAC Championships. The Lumberjacks made their presence known inside the University of Houston's CRWC Natatorium on Wednesday, staking them to the early advantage.
The Lumberjacks collected 147 points and leads Idaho (107 points) and Grand Canyon (85) among the top three teams.
Like it did last year, NAU opened up the conference meet with gold medals in two of the three events on the first day, defending its titles on the 1-meter springboard and in the 800 freestyle relay.
"The relays were about as good as they could get and the divers; I mean they were incredible," said head coach
Andy Johns. "Nikki (Huffman) and her crew did a great job today both in the prelims and in the finals. We're off to a great start and we're looking forward to keeping it going starting tomorrow morning."
Junior
Tatiana Kurach, the reigning WAC Diver of the Year, edged out a few of her teammates for the 1-meter victory and notching her second career gold medal in the process. Kurach, along with freshman
Jenny Cheetham and junior
Christina Torrente, swept the podium finishing one-two-three in a resounding performance.
Kurach, diving in the final position after placing first in the preliminaries, clinched the top spot with a final score of 286.95. She bested Cheetham's score of 285.60 in the freshman's first-ever championship event. Torrente claimed third with a score of 284.70, clinching NAU's first diving podium sweep since joining the WAC in 2005.
The Lumberjacks were not done as junior
Raquel Gonzales placed fifth overall with a season-best score of 272.30. With Gonzales' finish, the Lumberjacks not only had four of the top five, but NAU accounted for half of the championship final.
"Getting four in the top eight is just amazing and first, second and third; we can't ask for more in a sweep," said diving coach
Nikki Huffman. "First, second and third were separated by just a couple of points and it could've gone to either of the top three. (Raquel) didn't make finals on 1-meter last year, and even though she got fifth, she was 12 points better in finals."
Kurach, Torrente and Gonzales were one-two-three at the conclusion of the preliminaries with Cheetham in fifth. Junior
Olivia Payne gave NAU a fifth scorer with a qualifying score of 225.55 into the consolation final. In the 'B' final, Payne improved her score by nearly 40 points to 263.10 and in the process improved from 14th to earn a career-best WAC finish of 11th.
"Olivia wasn't on fire in prelims, but she shined in consoles," Huffman said. "It was her highest conference score by far. She was actually four points out of winning consoles, which was impressive."
With Kurach's win, NAU has now won the 1-meter event three years running with former Lumberjack
Alexa Geiger placing first each of the last two years.
In the 800 free relay, the team of senior
Kimmy Richter, redshirt junior
Monique King, freshman
Sam Milewski and senior
Alina Staffeldt nearly broke the school record with a winning time of 7:17.94. The quartet was a mere .01 seconds off the record mark set in 2013.
NAU stood in third after the first 200 yards and moved up to second following King's second leg in which she posted the fastest split among the four Lumberjacks. It would then be Milewski who would storm ahead of Grand Canyon's swimmer to give Staffeldt a lead going into the final 200 yards – a lead in which she would not relinquish.
This year was a little different for Staffeldt, as she went into the final 200 yards in front. In anchoring last year's 800 free relay, Staffeldt overcame a deficit of nearly one-and-half seconds in the final 50 yards to pull out the gold for NAU.
"Kimmy did a great job leading off; that's a tough spot to be in but she managed it well," Johns said. "Monique had a really big swim and then Sam was solid the whole way through. Alina did what she has done on that relay the last three years. The difference was that she went into the water with a lead; last year she was really far behind before bringing it home. I would've loved for them to get that school record, but they're set up well for the rest of the week."
In the night's first relay – the 200 medley relay – NAU earned the silver with a time of 1:42.09 despite having three freshmen among the four swimmers. Freshmen
Sarah O'Connor,
Hope Williams and
Elisa Rodriguez were anchored by senior
Roni Houck in getting to the podium. The Lumberjacks actually placed third, but were awarded second after the race's initial runner-up New Mexico State was disqualified.
The 'Jacks have opened the WAC Championships with a relay win, a diving win and a runner-up relay finish in each of the last three years.
In the first full day of action, preliminaries for the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley and 50 freestyle will begin at 9:30 a.m. MST Thursday morning. The 3-meter springboard prelims will begin at 11:30 a.m. MST. Finals for all events plus the 200 free relay will start at 5 p.m. MST.
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