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HOUSTON, Texas – Senior
Alina Staffeldt did what she does best – triumph over her conference competition – to highlight the third day of the WAC Championships at Houston's CRWC Natatorium. Staffeldt won her school record ninth conference gold medal in the 100 butterfly to lead the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team into Saturday's final day of competition with 545 points.
NAU holds a 130-point advantage over Idaho, who is second with 415 points, with seven events remaining. New Mexico State is not far behind Idaho in third with 400 points.
"We battled and we were tough; we only lost 13 points to Idaho overall," said head coach
Andy Johns. "We still have a pretty good cushion because our girls just raced. We had some really great performances from Alina and Monique (King), but really across the board. We had a lot of lifetime-bests and they don't always show up in a podium finish. They're really important to sustaining the energy and momentum, and there's a lot of that going on."
Staffeldt clocked a season-best time of 54.14 to win a closely contested 100 butterfly 'A' final with the three medalists finishing less than a half-second of each other. Staffeldt, who went into the finals with the fastest preliminary time of 54.26, defended her individual conference title in the 100 fly with her NCAA 'B' cut time.
Staffeldt is a three-time 100 butterfly champion having won the event as a freshman and a junior. Of her school record nine golds, five are individual events. She will attempt to three-peat in the 200 butterfly on Saturday.
She was joined in the 100 fly championship heat by junior
Andrea Schmidt, who finished eighth overall. Although she posted a time of 57.09 in the evening, Schmidt qualified with a career-best time of 55.83 in the morning prelims. Sophomore
Kate Bier posted her own personal-best time of 56.09 to place 11th overall and freshman
Elisa Rodriguez finished 14th with a time of 56.81 in the consoles.
Friday's day three action began in the 400 individual medley where junior
Sarah Takach earned her best career conference finish of fifth with a time of 4:23.04. It was a two-place improvement from last year when she finished seventh. Freshman
Niamh McDonagh swam in her first career 'A' final and was one spot behind Takach in sixth with a time of 4:23.87. Both swimmers shaved off three seconds in the finals compared to their qualifying times.
Senior
Audrey Mann recorded her first of two scoring performances on the evening in the 'B' final of the 400 IM, finishing 15th with a time of 4:33.64. In her final year, Mann competed in the grueling 400 IM for the first time at the conference meet.
NAU had four swimmers in the 200 freestyle finals with senior
Kimmy Richter posting the high finish of fifth with a time of 1:51.04. Freshman
Sam Milewski turned in a season-best time of 1:51.28 to finish one spot behind.
While she was not competing in the 'A' final, redshirt junior
Monique King actually had the best swim of any of the four Lumberjack scorers in winning the consolation heat. In placing ninth overall, King was spectacular, touching the wall in 1:49.27 that propelled her into second all-time in program history. Her time, had she been in the 'A' final, would have placed her third.
A pair of freshmen were NAU's top finishers in the 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke, as
Hope Williams and
Sarah O'Connor represented the 'Jacks in the top eight finals. Williams recorded a time of 1:04.02 to finish sixth in the 100 breast, while O'Connor placed seventh in the 100 back with a time of 56.42. O'Connor's qualifying swim in the morning was impressive, as she blazed to the wall in 56.01 that moved her into fourth in NAU's all-time performances. She would later lower that time even further with a lead-off swim in the 400 medley relay of 55.88.
Seniors
Claire Hammond,
Roni Houck and Mann rounded out NAU's point scorers. Hammond was 15th in the 200 freestyle (1:53.64), Houck was 15th in the 100 breast (1:06.18) and Mann was 16th in the 100 breast (1:06.70). Houck, NAU's sprint freestyle leader, scored in her first and last appearance in the 100 breast of her collegiate career.
The night ended with NAU finishing fourth in the 400 medley relay. O'Connor, Williams, Staffeldt and Rodriguez lowered their seed time by more than four seconds to 3:45.20.
The championships will conclude with the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, platform diving, mile freestyle and 400 freestyle relay on Saturday. Prelims for the first four events will start at 9:30 a.m. MST on Saturday with the divers back in action at 11:15 a.m. MST. The mile will kick off the 5 p.m. evening session preceding the finals for the remainder of the events.
"The third day is always a bit tough for us because we get spread out and we didn't have diving," Johns said. "Tomorrow is traditionally a really strong day for us with some great events. We're looking forward to seeing them continuing to compete at a high level."
Should the Lumberjacks hold on for the wire-to-wire victory, they will clinch their fifth straight WAC title. The five consecutive conference championships would also be their longest championship streak in school history.
@NAUSwimDive on Twitter will have live updates throughout the last day. Live video streaming links are available at the top of the page.
