Northern Arizona Swims Past Northern Colorado

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona, November 3. THE NAU swimming & diving team won both relays, both diving events, and nine individual races to cruise to a 178-119 win over new WAC foe Northern Colorado on Saturday in Wall Aquatic Center. The Lumberjacks are now 3-0 in duals this season and 9-0 all-time in duals against Northern Colorado.

“Our girls really enjoy racing in their home pool and I think that showed today,” said NAU head coach Andy Johns. “A lot of different people were asked to step up and I think they did a great job of that. We were better than we were two weeks ago and way better than we were a month ago so that's nice to see.”

Junior Emma Lowther and sophomore Caitlin Wright each won two individual events to lead the Lumberjack swimmers. Lowther won the first individual race, the 800 freestyle, in 9:14.88 and later added a win in the 100 butterfly in 1:04.74. Wright touched first in the 200 free in 2:09.27 in her first individual race of the day then won the 400 free in 4:34.69.

A pair of Lumberjack freshmen also won races as Brooke Brittain placed first in the 100 backstroke in 1:06.21 and Ellie Morrissey touched in 26.81 to win the 50 free. Morrissey also swam the lead leg in NAU's winning 400 free relay team in 4:25.09 with junior Rachel Palmer swimming the third leg and later winning the 200 individual medley in 2:24.33.

The diving boards were once again dominated by NAU senior Kristy Ardavanis, who won the 3-meter competition with a 308.25 score and then scored 290.78 to win the 1-meter. Junior Gwen Smithberg finished second on 3-meter at 282.98, a score that qualifies her for the NCAA Zone meet, and placed third on 1-meter at 257.33. The Lumberjacks took the top three spots on 1-meter as freshman Chelsea Jackson took second on the board at 258.08 after placing fifth on 3-meter.

Other individual event winners for the Lumberjacks were junior Andrea Derflinger with a winning time of 2:24.35 in the 200 fly and senior Kelsey Loy, who touched at exactly 1:00.00 to win the 100 free. Loy, Lowther, senior Fi Connell, and freshman Molly Elkins closed the meet with a winning time of 1:48.62 in the 200 free relay.

The Lumberjacks compete on consecutive days next weekend in the Pacific Northwest, starting with a meet at Washington State next Friday at 6 p.m.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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