HOUSTON, Texas – The goal was already in hand, but the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team had one final exclamation point in mind to punctuate their fifth straight Western Athletic Conference Championship.
In the final event of the 2018 WAC Championships, the Lumberjacks made history – and fittingly it served as a reminder of two things. Their senior class will go down as the greatest ever, and that this program is going nowhere any time soon.
Freshman
Elisa Rodriguez led off and seniors
Roni Houck,
Kimmy Richter and
Alina Staffeldt took it from there in a school record winning performance of 3:23.27 in the 400 freestyle relay. The senior trio, in their last collegiate race, combined efforts with Rodriguez to post NAU's first 400 freestyle relay win since joining the WAC. The Lumberjacks had not won gold in the 400 free relay since 1994.
"It was a lot of fun and it was the exclamation point to a great meet from start to finish," said head coach
Andy Johns. "It was so great to see and feel all the energy and emotions. (The relay) was perfect."
The 400 free relay punctuated an 810 point championship performance by the Lumberjacks over the last four days, which ended with lifting the hardware for the fifth straight year. NAU outdistanced itself from the runner-up New Mexico State, who finished with 601 points, throughout Saturday's final session. The 209 point margin of victory was NAU's second-largest during its longest, and current, conference championship run in school history.
Idaho (585) and Grand Canyon (519) finished third and fourth respectively. Northern Colorado (384), CSU Bakersfield (364) and Seattle (213) rounded out the rest of the standings.
Johns was named the WAC Swimming Coach of the Year for the fifth straight year and sixth time overall. Diving coach
Nikki Huffman was named the Co-Diving Coach of the Year – marking her third straight honor – and she guided junior
Tatiana Kurach to her second consecutive WAC Diver of the Year award. Kurach placed first on both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboards this season.
NAU collected two golds on Saturday to finish with seven event wins for the third straight year. Prior to the relay win, Staffeldt was a three-peat winner in the 200 butterfly with a season-best and NCAA 'B' cut time of 1:59.15. It was her sixth individual WAC gold medal and she wrapped her career with a school record 11 golds, including capturing four this week.
"I'm just so happy I made the choice to come to NAU," Staffeldt said. "This was some of the best moments of my life and tonight was the perfect ending. We didn't even know we broke the school record (in the relay). To win with these seniors, we've been through everything together. I'm glad that we all met and came to NAU."
Staffeldt was the lead swimmer for a Lumberjack contingent that put their mark on the 200 butterfly yet again. Junior
Andrea Schmidt earned her first individual medal, placing third with a time of 2:01.93. Sophomore
Kate Bier swam in her first 'A' final and posted a lifetime-best time of 2:02.81 to finish fifth, while freshman
Niamh McDonagh was sixth with a time of 2:04.07.
The night began with another of NAU's strongest events – the 1,650 freestyle – and junior
Monique King was stellar in picking up silver medalist honors with a time of 16:34.79 that places her fourth on the program's all-time performance list. The 'Jacks went two-three-four in the mile with freshman
Sam Milewski (16:39.34) and senior
Kimmy Richter (16:45.39) finishing third and fourth respectively with career-best times themselves.
Before even swimming lead-off on the school record relay, Rodriguez swam the fourth-fastest 100 freestyle time in program history (50.62) to place fourth overall. In her first conference championships, Rodriguez leaves Houston with top five times in the 50 and the 100.
She was one of three Lumberjacks to score in the 100 free with Houck and senior
Claire Hammond adding to the point total in their last individual events. Houck placed seventh in the 'A' final with a time of 51.25 and Hammond was 16th with a time of 53.35 in the consolation.
Junior
Sarah Takach was the lone scorer in the 200 breaststroke, winding up in 10th following a finals time of 2:20.36. In the 200 backstroke, sophomore
Fernanda Montiel and freshman
Sarah O'Connor were fifth and seventh respectively as they both posted best times. Montiel, who was already third all-time, lowered her career-best mark to 2:00.67, while O'Connor swam 2:01.97.
Like Bier in the 200 fly, Montiel also qualified for her first championship heat. Likewise in platform diving, junior
Olivia Payne competed in her first career 'A' final. With moments like that, and the fact that all 21 members of NAU's scoring squad scored in at least one event, the conference title was yet another team effort.
"We talk about being a team in an individual sport," Johns said. "We talk about having balance and depth and it showed. They all contribute in ways that don't always show up on the scoreboard, but this week it did. It's a tribute to every one of them for staying the course and continuing to work."
Even without Kurach, who was held out of Saturday's platform event, the divers still left their mark on the meet with juniors
Raquel Gonzales,
Christina Torrente and Payne all placing in the top six.
Gonzales and Torrente each reached the podium for the first time on platform with Gonzales posting a finals score of 232.45 to record a runner-up finish. Torrente joined her as a medalist in third following a career-best score of 217.15. Meanwhile, Payne concluded her championships with a fifth-place finish and her own career-best score of 210.35.
NAU's two freshmen divers,
Jenny Cheetham and
Katie Conn, dove in the 'B' final and recorded 13th and 14th place finishes respectively. Cheetham totaled 183.65 points and Conn scored 174.80 in the final round.
"(Raquel) went big and she added a couple of different dives to prepare her for Zones," Huffman said. "One paid off and one not as much, but I give her credit. Christina did a great job as did Jenny and Olivia being in her first final was really exciting. I knew Katie could score all along and I'm so happy she had the performance she did."
"We're thrilled with the whole week," Huffman added. "We had a sweep (on 3-meter), a first-second-fourth (on 1-meter) and a two-three-five (on platform) with all six divers scoring. We had the most top eights of any team and they were awesome."
As a team, NAU had 37 top eight finishes and an additional 16 finishes between ninth and 16th this week. NAU totaled 14 individual medals not including the two golds and two silvers in relays; and of course, there was the school record as the grand finale.
