Las Vegas, Nev. (December 18, 2022) — Northern Arizona Swimming and Diving built off an already strong Day 1 of the UNLV Invitational with a just as impressive Day 2 on Sunday, moving into second place by surpassing host team UNLV.
"We had a lot of great swims today," NAU head swim coach Andy Johns said. "We had a lot of people doing multiple events, including relays, so they're a bit tired."
NAU looked strong in relays, earning a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay with a team consisting of junior Sophie Velitchkov, senior Haley Mayhew, junior Caylah Jago and freshman Elsa Musselman (1:42.24).
The 800-yard freestyle relay also had solid NAU representation with Musselman, sophomore Helena Robla-Alvarez, sophomore Bena Koehn and Rey finishing seventh (7:35.66). The quartet of sophomore Casey Craffey, Mayhew, junior Francesca Criscione and freshman Nicole Kepl right behind in eighth (7:42.64).
Junior Maddy Rey and Musselman lead all 81 participants in total points across the women's events with just one day of the invitational left with 50 and 48 points respectively. Rey continued her winning performance from Day 1, grabbing a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 400-yard IM (4:21.25) and the 100-yard butterfly (55.13), improving from fifth place in each of the preliminary races.
"The 100 fly was the highlight event for us tonight," Johns said.
The Lumberjacks took first, third and fourth in the 100 fly, bookended by Musselman (54.37) and Rey (55.13). Musselman swept both the prelims and the finals of the event, taking the win in each. Jago rounded out the podium in the event with a time of 55.05.
Mayhew was the lone Lumberjack in the top eight of the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing sixth with a time of 1:03.67 against a handful of Power 5 swimmers. Velitchkov was also a top-eight finisher in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing third (55.38) behind UCLA's Sophia Kosturos (53.78) and California Baptist University's Michaela Trnkova (54.51).
"We're seeing tough competition and gaining valuable experience in preparation for the conference meet in February," Johns said.
NAU was exceptional in the 1-meter dives on Day 2 just as it was in the 3-meter the day prior. The Lumberjacks placed five divers in the top eight of the 1-meter finals after placing six on Day 1.
Junior Reaney Preston was victorious in the 1-meter dives with a winning score of 283.80. Not far behind was junior Victoria Knapp. The 3-meter dive winner fell just short of sweeping the dive events with a second-place result in the 1-meter (283.70). Freshman Grace Wesche (253.90), junior Maegan Jensen (247.75) and freshman Mackenna Stocker (246.35) finished fourth through sixth respectively in an NAU-dominated final.
NAU sits in second place among the 10-team field after amassing 319 points on Day 2. The final day of the UNLV Invitational is set to begin Monday at 9:30 a.m. MST with the prelims for the Women 100 IM. The invitational will end with the 400-yard freestyle relay at around 7 p.m. MST.
To stay up to date with NAU swimming and diving, follow the Jacks on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
TEAM SCORES
1 UCLA - 865
2 Northern Arizona University - 504
3 University of Nevada Las Vegas - 479
4 New Mexico State University - 329
5 California Baptist University - 184
6 Cal Poly - 106
7 University of New Mexico - 99
8 Fresno Pacific University - 18
9 Linfield University - 12
10 Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College - 2
