MOSCOW, Idaho (October 20, 2023) – The Northern Arizona Swimming and Diving team started off another WAC title defense strong in its first dual meet of the season, defeating the Idaho Vandals 176.5-123.5 at the UI Aquatic Center in Moscow on Friday afternoon.
Friday's showing at Idaho marked continued dominance for the Lumberjacks in the opening match of WAC play, having won nine of their last 10 conference openers dating back to the 2013-14 season.
"I thought we had a great meet today," head coach Andy Johns said. "We had a lot of great efforts and results. Our divers were dominant, and swimmers controlled the meet in the first half. Overall, it was a quality win, showing our depth against a tough Vandal team. I look forward to seeing our team at full strength against New Mexico in two weeks."
Taking first place in 12 of the 16 events, including having four of the five best scores in the 3-meter dives.
Mackenna Stocker led all NAU divers with a final score of 344.03, with second and third belonging to Maegan Jensen and Margaret Wesche, respectively, with 328.80 and 325.65.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Sophie Velitchkov, Trelise Dance, Caylah Jago and Elsa Musselman placed first in the relay, recording a 1:45.05 effort. NAU would go on to split the two relays with Idaho.
Following the medley was the longest event of the day, the 1,000-yard freestyle. Casey Craffey's 10:21.79 was nearly five seconds quicker than the next fastest swimmer to win the 1,000.
Craffey's first place in the 1,000 was the second of six consecutive first-place finishes to start the swimming events on Friday. Bena Koehn's 1:53.61 in the 200-yard freestyle, Velitchkov's 56.27 mark in the 100-yard backstroke, Trelise Dance's 1:05.11, in the 100 breaststroke, and Maddy Rey's 2:03.20 in the 200-yard butterfly would give NAU an early lead in the meet.
After closing the 3-meter dives with four of the top five scores, Northern Arizona did it again in the 1-meter, with Jensen and Stocker flipping spots from the first set of dives. Preston and Wesche ended with the fourth and fifth-highest tallies in the 1-meters.
The Vandals would take first in the following two events, but Cydnie Perkins bested the field in the 200-yard breaststroke with a 2:22.60 finish. In the longest freestyle event of the day, Maddy Rey would claim top billing with a time of 5:02.49.
Pentathlon champion Elsa Musselman followed that up by taking the next two events, the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley, with a 55.49 in the butterfly and a 2:06.12 in the medley.
Northern Arizona will host its dual meet of the season in its next time out, facing off with the New Mexico Lobos on Nov. 4 starting at 11 a.m. at the Wall Aquatic Center.
To stay up to date with NAU Swimming and Diving, follow the Lumberjacks on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook.
