FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 9, 2019) – The Northern Arizona Swimming and Diving team will be hosting a dual meet against Kansas and Northern Colorado on Friday, Jan. 11 at 4 p.m. MST at the Aquatic and Tennis Center. The dual meet will be a senior day event for the swimmers and divers, as it is the last home meet of the season. The Lumberjacks will be recognizing six seniors on the afternoon,
Tatiana Kurach,
Olivia Payne,
Andrea Schmidt,
Sarah Takach,
Christina Torrente and
Monique King.
LAST TIME OUT
NAU was last in the pool and on the boards on Nov. 16-18 when the team held the Lumberjack Invite for both swimming and diving. For swimming, New Mexico State and Arizona Christian University participated, while for the diving invite Idaho, New Mexico State and Arizona took part in the event. NAU finished first in the swimming invite and had multiple divers finish in the top five in the three different diving events.
On the diving side, Northern Arizona's top performer for the Invite was Torrente, who finished second in the 1-meter event with a score of 551.80 and third in the 3-meter event with a score of 552.50. Other Lumberjacks who finished in the top five in an event were Payne on the platform where she took fourth with a score of 196.05, while
Jenny Cheetham took fourth in the 1-meter with a score of 515.70.
Between the lanes, the Lumberjack swimmers had their best meet of the season as multiple swimmers swam their fastest times of the season. Numerous Aquatic Center records were broken, including a school record. NAU's most impressive achievement from the invite came from
Elisa Rodriguez, who set a new school record in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.91. The 'Jacks set a total of six Aquatic Center records in the two day invite. King dominated the long freestyle distances, as she broke the pool records in the 500 and 1650 freestyle. NAU continued its dominance in the freestyle events on the weekend with an Aquatic Center record in the 200 Freestyle Relay event. The two other pool records that were broken were in the 200 Individual Medley by Takach and in the 400 Individual Medley by
Niamh McDonagh.
MATCHUPS
Both Northern Colorado and Kansas will be traveling out to Flagstaff to swim in the dual meet on Friday.
Northern Arizona will be facing off with conference foe Northern Colorado for the first time this season. The two teams last faced off in a meet in the 2016-17 season, which NAU won, 161-91. With the win, it pushed Northern Arizona to a record of 12-0 all-time against Northern Colorado. UNC is currently 5-1 on the season with wins over all three WAC teams it has faced.
UNC's strength in the pool comes from its short distance freestyler Maddy Moore, who has broken two school records in the 50 and the 100 this season. Another name to look out for from the Bears is Ioanna Sacha in the 100 and 200 Backstroke events, as she has also set UNC records in both events. On the boards, the Bears' divers to look out for are Celeste Llona and Allyson Wood.
The 'Jacks will be facing off against Kansas for the second time in program history with the Jayhawks leading the series 1-0. The meet took place in 2008 with KU winning by a score of 193-103.
Through the 2018-19 season, Kansas is currently 4-0 with wins over TCU and Nebraska.
On the boards, the Jayhawks will have two divers in Perri Charapich and Allison Grass. Through two meets on the year, Charapich has been able to separate herself as KU's top diver. In the pool, Kansas has shown its most impressive times in the 100 Backstroke with Manon Manning and the 100 and 200 Breaststroke with Kate Steward.
