LAS VEGAS, Nev. (December 19, 2022) - The Lumberjacks wrapped up the third and final day of the UNLV invitational tonight, finishing the invite in second place overall with 762 points, just behind the UCLA Bruins.
"In spite of a lot of scratches due to injury and illness, the swimmers who competed today and tonight showed a lot of toughness and resilience," Head Coach Andy Johns said.
NAU saw a quick top three time from Casey Craffey in the 1650 free as the sophomore finished in second place, just behind UCLA's Katrina Bellio. Craffey's second place time of 16:45.41 was ten seconds faster than the third place finisher Stephanie Su from UCLA.
Putting two more top eight times on the board for the Jacks, Jamie Dellwardt and Sophie Velitchkov placed seventh and eighth respectively in the 200 backstroke, both improving from their morning prelim times.
Elsa Musselman capped off a successful weekend for the freshman, placing seventh in the 100 free, finishing in just 51.53. Maddy Rey stepped up for yet another top three finish, as the junior placed second in 2:00.22. Rey placed third in individual scoring overall in the invitational, alongside Musselman who placed seventh marking the two Lumberjacks in the top ten.
NAU's Rey, Bena Koehn, Velitchkov, and Musselman closed out the meet with a fifth place in the 400 free relay at 3:25.21.
"Our top performers were asked to do a lot this weekend. The divers were awesome and definitely were a huge part of our second place team finish," Johns said. "We are looking forward to a short holiday break and then back to work at the end of the month before getting ready to host our final home meet on the 6th."
The Lumberjacks will take a quick Winter break before heading back to Flagstaff to host Colorado State and North Texas at the Wall Aquatic Center on January 6.
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Final Scores
UCLA - 1,344 Points
Northern Arizona - 762 Points
UNLV - 722 Points
New Mexico State - 547 Points
CBU - 236 Points
Cal Poly - 176 Points
New Mexico - 164 Points
Fresno Pacific - 40 Points
Linfield - 21 Points
Lewis & Clark College - 10 Points
