FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (December 16, 2023) – Returning to a more traditional 16-event meet at Wall Aquatic Center on Saturday, Northern Arizona Swimming and Diving continued to return to its dominance against WAC foes, taking out New Mexico State 186-114.
NAU ended the 2023 calendar year, having not dropped a single WAC dual meet and won its 10th consecutive conference championship this past February.
"The first part of the meet was very good to us," head coach Andy Johns said. "Obviously, diving continues to be dominant. We had to deal with some adversity today with many tough races from New Mexico State. It is great to see our team move forward, and is a terrific way to end the semester."
In a similar fashion to Friday's relay day, Northern Arizona came out strong out of the gate with the 'A' relay of Bena Koehn, Annie Carlton, Ellie McFarland and Sophie Velitchkov, scoring the best time with a 1:44.96 in the 200-yard medley relay.
Up next was the grueling 1,000-yard freestyle, and in come-from-behind fashion, Francesca Criscione was the last one standing after trailing at the 800-meter. Criscione wound up finishing almost two full seconds ahead of New Mexico State at 10:35.20.
Following being a part of the winning 200-yard medley relay, Sophie Velitchkov did some heavy lifting of her own, ending with the fastest time in the 100-yard backstroke with a 57.11.
The 100-yard backstroke saw Lumberjack swimmers earn the two quickest times, with Cydnie Perkins clocking in at 1:05.51 for first-place honors, and Trelise Dance was right behind her at 1:05.98.
It was a hat trick for Northern Arizona in the 200-yard butterfly event, racking up the best three outcomes. Maddy Rey came in first at 2:06.59, Caylah Jago was second at 2:09.77, and the 2:12.61 mark Kendall Carlson set was good enough for third.
Jago would eventually get a first-place time later in the meet, with her 56.47 second time topping all swimmers in the 100-yard butterfly.
Elsa Musselman individually had three top times of her own, finishing first in the 50-yard freestyle at 23.53, the 100-yard freestyle earning a time of 52.01, and the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:06.84 finish.
After the diving teams competed in 3-meter and a team event during Friday's meet, it was all about the 1-meter and platform dives today.
Victoria Knapp had top billing in the 1-meter with a final score of 309.75, just 0.15 points ahead of second place Grace Wesche. NAU had the five best scores at 1-meter.
Despite New Mexico State's Mira Tinani having the best scores in the platform competition, Lumberjack divers occupied spots two through five.
Up next for the Lumberjacks is a trip to Tucson to face off with its first power five opponent, the Arizona Wildcats, on Jan. 5. NAU will not have a home meet until Jan. 27-28, when they take on Utah Tech at Wall Aquatic Center.
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