HOUSTON, Texas (February 26, 2020) – Northern Arizona swimming and diving found itself in a great spot after the first day of the Western Athletic Conference Championships, taking gold and silver on the 1-meter dive, breaking a school record in the 200 medley relay, and totaling to 118 at the end of the night.
All three divers earned a spot in finals after being in the top six dives in the preliminary round.
Jenny Cheetham took first with 291.05 with
Emily Sharrer behind her at 260.30. Taking sixth,
Emily Luberto finished with 234.45 points.
Cheetham went on to finish first in the finals, improving her score by almost 7 points, with a 297.70 tally. Sharrer finished behind her again, this time at 279.95. Bumping into fourth, Luberto went 256.90, her second-best tally on the 1-meter board. With Cheetham's win, NAU has five consecutive 1-meter diving champions.
Breaking a seven-year school record in the 200 medley relay,
Sarah O'Connor,
Hope Williams,
Elisa Rodriguez and
Miranda Nichols finished in third with 1:40.82, besting the previous time of 1:40.99. The Lumberjacks took the bronze medal after NMSU (1:39.94) and CSUB (1:40.82) outswam them by less than a second in both races.
In the final race of the day, the 800 freestyle relay, NAU placed in second with a final time of 7:25.98, just behind CBU's 7:20.58 finish. Nichols,
Katy Smith,
Erin Spielman and
Alice Hick beat the previous season time of 7:28.96 found back in January.
The Lumberjacks will be back tomorrow morning for day two of the WAC Championships at 9:30 a.m. MST, beginning with prelims for the 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 free, and 3-meter dive. At 5 p.m. MST, the finals competition for those events will begin, as well as the 200 freestyle relay.
Team Rankings – Through Event 5
