GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. / FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Nov. 22, 2024) – The Northern Arizona women's swimming and diving teams had another successful day as they competed in the TYR/CMU Invitational and the Lumberjack Diving Invite.
The swimmers began their day at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Standard time with preliminaries in the 100-yard butterfly, 400-yard individual medley, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, and 100-yard backstroke. The finals followed at 5:00 p.m. MST, and also included the 400-yard medley relay.
In the 100-yard butterfly, Elsa Musselman led the way, finishing first with a prelim time of 53.74 and a finals time of 53.79. Isabel Krasht secured fourth place with 55.61, Gracie Munk took fifth with 55.82, and Kaci Kelaher claimed sixth with 56.03.
The 200-yard freestyle saw Helena Robla finish sixth with a time of 1:51.60, closely followed by Bena Koehn in seventh at 1:51.74.
In the 100-yard breaststroke, Trelise Dance placed fourth with a time of 1:03.21, while Cydnie Perkins finished fifth at 1:03.42.
Gracie Munk led the Lumberjacks in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing seventh with a time of 55.93. Jamie Dellwardt followed in 10th place with 56.92.
The day concluded with the 400-yard medley relay, where the Lumberjacks' "A" team - comprised of Munk, Perkins, Musselman, and Koehn - secured third place with a combined time of 3:43.35. The "B" team of Dellwardt, Dance, Kelaher, and Robla finished seventh with a time of 3:49.57.
The Lumberjacks held their third-place position with a cumulative team score of 449.50. They will compete in the final day of the meet tomorrow, starting with preliminaries in the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, and 1650-yard freestyle at 10:00 a.m. MST. The finals, including the 400-yard freestyle relay, will begin at 4:00 p.m. Live stats of the meet can be found here while live streaming can be found here.
Day two of the Lumberjack Diving Invitational began with 35 competitors in the women's division, 25 of whom advanced to the final stage. The women competed on the platform with six dives, while the men competed on the 3-meter board.
Fresno State's Grace Ally claimed the top spot in the women's division, earning a prelim score of 235.40 and a final score of 492.80.
Northern Arizona's six divers all placed in the top 10. Catalina Devia led the Lumberjacks with a second-place finish, earning a prelim score of 229.60 and a final score of 459.15. Margaret Wesche followed in third with scores of 223.65 and 452.15. Mackenna Stocker finished sixth with 179.70 and 421.50, while Grace Wesche earned seventh with scores of 217.00 and 420.50. Victoria Knapp secured eighth with 193.00 and 404.10, and Kendall Marquez rounded out the group in ninth with 187.90 and 389.60.
"We did a great job today and had a lot of people even at the top of the rankings and that was great," head diving coach Nikki Kelsey said. "Cat as a freshman had a great showing with a second-place finish and again we had a couple of comeback performances from prelims to finals, so that's always fun to see."
The day was rounded out with a team event, with teams of three taking on two dives each. The Lumberjacks took first and second place. The "A" team of Knapp, Devia and Marquez scored 302.00 and the "B" team of Stocker and both Wesche sisters scored 270.65.
"Team events are just fun with each person doing two different dives, three people to a team and you know, to be one, two in that event says a lot. We're doing great things and overall there has been a great team effort and I'm proud of all of them," Kelsey said.
In the men's division, Cal Poly's Justin Dolezal topped the leaderboard with a prelim score of 256.45 and a final score of 589.35. The Colorado Mesa men's "A" team scored 261.95 in the final team event.
Tomorrow's session will conclude the fall edition of the Lumberjack Diving Invitational. The women will compete in the 1-meter championship, while the men will take on the platform. Preliminaries start at 10:00 a.m. MST. Live stats for the event are available here.
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