HOUSTON, Texas (February 29, 2020) – Since 2014, Northern Arizona University's women's swimming and diving has won the Western Athletic Conference Championships. Today marks their seventh straight win, taking the trophy home with 677.5 points, almost 100 more than California Baptist, who finished in second (579).
"I am so proud of the efforts of our entire team," head coach
Andy Johns said. "Dealing with adversity of schedule changes and only timed finals, they were the best team the last two days, with the most energy and the best attitude on deck. A challenging year with lots of struggles, but this team showed the heart of a champion the last two days and won a well-deserved title."
During the last four days, the Lumberjacks earned six individual gold medals, with two swimmers having two first-place finishes:
Elisa Rodriguez and
Lainie Bell.
"Starting with the mile, we swam pretty well, but California Baptist outscored us to make it a close meet," Johns said. "But our backstrokers, starting with
Sarah O'Connor in an early heat, just took over the event. That energy flowed into our 100 freestylers and earned another win from
Elisa Rodriguez."
In the 1650 free, the Lumberjacks took three top-sixteen finishes, with
Astrid Villeda leading the way in fifth with a time of 17:07.61.
Sam Milewski took 11th, improving her previous time of 17:34.14 to 17:27.88.
Alice Hick finished 16th, timing in at 17:36.36, besting her record of 17:56.58 by 20 seconds.
Bell earned their second gold medals during today's meet. Since 2012, NAU has not won in the 200 backstroke until Bell worked out her way into first in the 200 backstroke, finishing at 1:56.94 and beating her previous time of 2:05.33 (Nov. 23, 2019) by more than eight seconds.
O'Connor's time of 2:01.12 pushed her to finish in fifth place, with
Fernanda Montiel swimming by her side in sixth, with a time of 2:01.17.
Rodriguez's second win came from the 100 freestyle, finishing at 49.24. She is now a two-time winner in the event, winning this season and last.
Miranda Nichols helped her team earn points in the 100 free after rounding out to 13th, hitting the wall at 51.47, and record new personal best.
"
Hope Williams and
Haley Mayhew swam well," Johns said. "Our flyers all swam great and combined with the divers, we had control of the meet."
Williams and Mayhew went second (2:16.29) and fifth (2:17.35) in the 200 breaststroke, respectively. Williams was one of the six gold medal winners, after she finished first in the 100 breaststroke on the third day, timing in at 1:01.75.
Maddie Seidl,
Niamh McDonagh, and
Kate Bier went second (2:00.65), fourth (2:01.79), and seventh (2:03.56) in the 200 butterfly. Each swimmer bested their previous times by more than two seconds, but McDonagh had the most growth, coming from a previous time of 2:07.78.
In the final relay, the 400 freestyle, the team of Rodriguez,
Katy Smith,
Erin Spielman and Nichols took bronze, with their season best time of 3:22.81.
Jenny Cheetham, the first gold winner of the WAC Championships, took her win on day one on the 1-meter board, scoring 297.71 points. During today's platform competition, Cheetham totaled out to 208.30 points to place second.
Emily Sharrer took third with 199.15.
Emily Luberto was close behind in sixth a tally of 192.35, having a four-point difference to fourth.
The three divers will head to the NCAA Zone Diving Championships running from March 9-11. Shortly after, selected swimmers will compete at the National Invitational Championship on March 12-14.
