TUCSON, Ariz. (January 13, 2023) - Fresh off its final home meet of the season last week, NAU Swimming and Diving pulled off a miraculous victory against PAC-12 Washington State in a dual meet at the University of Arizona in Tucson. While the host Wildcats defended their home with wins against the Lumberjacks and Cougars, NAU came away with its third all-time win over Washington State, 178-116.
NAU's last win against Washington State came in Flagstaff on November 21, 2011. In that meet, NAU needed diving points to beat Washington State. The Lumberjacks earned more points than the Cougars this time around even before accounting for diving points.
The win on Friday is the second over the Cougars in head swimming coach Andy Johns's tenure at NAU.
"I'm just super proud of our girls," Johns said. "They brought a lot of energy. They really supported each other and I think that showed in our results. We're really happy to come away with a victory against a PAC-12 opponent."
Following Arizona's win in the 200-yard Medley Relay, NAU made its presence known in the 1,000-yard Freestyle where sophomore Casey Craffey (10:18.81) and junior Francesca Criscione (10:25.64) finished first in second.
Freshman Gracie Munk quite literally put the team on her back with wins in both the 100- and 200-yard Backstroke. Munk beat out Arizona's Paige Armstrong for the top spot in both events, claiming the 100 back in 56.25 and the 200 back in 56.25. Munk won the 200 back by nearly two seconds.
Consistent finishes across the board even in events NAU didn't win paved the way for the Lumberjacks to claim victory over a Power 5 school. Senior Haley Mayhew (1:04.74) and junior Delaney Phillips (1:06.02) secured third and fourth-place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Mayhew (2:18.52) and Phillips (2:22.96) also got third and fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke, but this time had freshman Cydnie Perkins right behind them in fifth (2:24.38).
Juniors Maddy Rey (2:04.95) and Caylah Jago (2:06.25) also took third and fourth in the 200-yard Butterfly.
Rey's performance later in the day was also stellar, claiming victory in the 500-yard freestyle by over four seconds (5:00.02) and finishing second in the 400-yard IM (4:29.51) in a close finish with Arizona's Daisy Anderson (4:28.32).
NAU had some more solid finishers in the 500 free as sophomore Helena Robla-Alvarez (5:05.79), Craffey (5:06.36) and Criscione (5:07.75) finished fourth through sixth respectively.
"We put some people in some pretty tough spots," Johns said. "Maddy and Francesca swam three individual events that were really tough. I think overall they showed a lot of toughness."
A large boost in points came in the 100-yard Butterfly where freshman Elsa Musselman (55.62) and Jago (57.77) finished second and fourth respectively to both beat out Washington State's best finisher, Skylar Brgoch, in fifth.
"At that point we were in control of the meet," Johns said.
The Lumberjacks ended the swim meet with a runner-up finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay with sophomore Bena Koehn, junior Annie Carlton, junior Sophie Velitchkov and Musselman coming in at 3:29.41 to beat Washington State's A relay team by .03 seconds.
"I think some confidence is starting to come through from some of these battles," Johns said when comparing his team's performance to last week.
As for diving, junior Victoria Knapp had the most points by a Lumberjack in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives. After finishing fourth in the 1-meter (258.45), Knapp surpassed Arizona's Gracie Sleeman in the 3-meter to take home third place (289.13).
NAU Swimming and Diving will be back in action in two weeks on Saturday, Jan. 28 as it will travel north to St. George, Utah to compete against the Utah Tech Trailblazers.
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