FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – In a triumphant return from injury, junior
Raquel Gonzales lived up to her billing as Northern Arizona's top platform diver by winning the tower event on Saturday to close the NAU Quad Diving meet. Not only did Gonzales best the field of 15 divers from NAU, Boise State, New Mexico and New Mexico State, but she did so with the second-best platform performance in program history.
After qualifying third in the prelims with a score of 220.25 – which was a season-best – Gonzales posted a huge score of 244.30 in the finals to claim first-place. Gonzales' performance only trails Gwen Smithberg's mark of 261.10 set in 2013 in the school record books.
With her 10-meter exclusive list, Gonzales put the exclamation point on Saturday by recording 118.30 points on her final two dives alone on her way to an NCAA Zone qualifying score.
"(Raquel) being able to get back up there and to win was great," said diving coach
Nikki Huffman. "She got a Zone qualifying score and it was great to see her put together a really good list again. That was definitely the highlight."
Freshman
Katie Conn and junior
Christina Torrente also reached the finals with Conn being the next highest finisher in ninth overall. Conn totaled a finals score of 188.45 after notching a personal-best score of 191.20 in the preliminaries. Torrente garnered the 12th spot in finals with a score of 162.25.
The Lumberjacks also received a career-best effort from junior
Olivia Payne, who scored 198.60 in the preliminaries. Payne's score, which was right ahead of Torrente's prelim score of 196.75, was good for fifth. However, the Lumberjacks opted to hold Payne out of the finals.
"I thought Olivia and Katie were really strong on platform and that was great because they don't always have the confidence up there," Huffman said. "Christina was a little off today, but still had a couple of really good dives. Overall, everyone had a couple of great events (throughout the weekend). We just have to take care of a few little injuries and get ready for conference."
With the two-day meet behind them, the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team will now focus on defending their Western Athletic Conference title. The Lumberjacks' quest for a fifth straight conference championship begins on Wednesday, Feb. 21 in Houston, Texas.
