PHARR, Texas (February 28, 2024) — It was a successful day for the Northern Arizona Swimming and Diving team as action kicked off in the 2024 WAC Conference Championship. The Jacks sit at the top of the leaderboard as they earned 152 points on Wednesday, leading California Baptist by 68 points.
"It was a great start to the competition tonight," head coach
Andy Johns said. "The divers were fantastic, going one-four and also nine and ten. Really proud of all our efforts tonight."
Grace Wesche and
Margaret Wesche represented NAU in the consolation finals on the diving side.
Grace Wesche scored 275.25 points for the first place finish and
Margaret Wesche scored 254.45 points to grab silver in the consolation.
The evening festivities started with the NAU 200-yard medley relay team coming in fifth place.
Sophie Velitchkov,
Delaney Phillips,
Elsa Musselman and
Annie Carlton came in with a time of 1:41.49.
On the diving side of things,
Victoria Knapp started and finished the day in first place, claiming the four-peat in 1-meter diving. Knapp scored 301.50 points for the victory tonight.
"I'm so happy for all of them," head diving coach
Nikki Kelsey said. "It is so hard to repeat, and
Victoria Knapp has now won four in a row. It was very close between all of them."
The Lumberjacks would also place second, third and fourth.
Maegan Jensen came in second place earning 298.30 points and
Reaney Preston grabbed silver with 290.55 points.
Mackenna Stocker took fourth place with 287.80 points.
The Lumberjacks grabbed the gold in the 800-yard freestyle relay and set a school record in the process.
Helena Robla-Alvarez also set a school record in the lead-off with a split of 1:48.11, breaking Emma Lowther's time of 1:48.26 set back in 2012.
Bena Koehn,
Maddy Rey and
Annie Carlton closed things out with a time of 7:13.38. The old school record was also set by
Robla-Alvarez, Rey and Carlton, which stood at 7:17.70.
Swimming will begin at 9:30 a.m MST and diving events will begin at 12:15 p.m. MST on Thursday. Finals will begin at 5 p.m. MST. Action will take place at the Pharr Natatorium and will be streamed on ESPN+ and on WAC International TV.
To stay updated with the meet, follow the Lumberjacks on
Twitter and
Instagram and like us on
Facebook.
