Northern Arizona University won the women’s team championship and the U.S. Air Force Academy the men’s at the Western Athletic Conference Swimming Championships Feb. 22-25 in Houston.<\/p>\n
NAU scored 615.5 points, pulling away from runner-up New Mexico State. NMSU edged out Idaho for second, 551 to 544, and Grand Canyon barely beat out the University of North Dakota (509 to 507).<\/p>\n
In the men’s meet, Air Force beat out Wyoming by 40.5 points, 794.5 to 754, while Grand Canyon (563), University of Nevada-Las Vegas (525.5) and the University of North Dakota (357) rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n
Seattle University’s\u00a0Blaise Wittenauer-Lee\u00a0<\/strong>finished first in the 200 IM in 1:59.95, but that was only a prelude to what she would accomplish in the breaststrokes. She posted a conference record-time of 1:00.52 in the 100 breast and a day later blasted a 2:09.85 in the 200 breast to become the first WAC swimmer to break the 2:10-barrier.<\/p>\n Grand Canyon’s\u00a0Estela Davis Ortiz<\/strong> did not compete in any individual events until the third day of the meet, but she still finished with three victories. Davis Ortiz captured the 400 IM in 4:16.38, the 100 back in 53.74 and the 200 back in 1:55.90. Her teammate\u00a0Samiha Mohsen<\/strong> also became a WAC champion on the weekend, winning the 50 free in 23.05.<\/p>\n CSU Bakersfield’s\u00a0Paola Hernandez\u00a0<\/strong>won the 200 free in 1:48.15 and then was the only swimmer to break 50 seconds in the 100 free, posting a time of 49.94. In the butterfly events, NAU’s Alina Staffeldt<\/b>\u00a0won both the 100 (54.06) and the 200 (1:59.30). Staffeldt’s teammate\u00a0Kimmy Richter\u00a0<\/strong>finished first in both the 500 free (4:51.24) and 1650 free (16:49.31).<\/p>\n NAU also captured a relay win in the 800 free relay as\u00a0Claire Hammond<\/strong>, Richter,\u00a0Kate Bier\u00a0<\/strong>and Staffeldt combined to finish in 7:20.31.\u00a0Three different NAU divers all picked up victories:\u00a0Alexa Geiger\u00a0<\/strong>on the 1-meter board (276.95),\u00a0Tonya Kurach<\/strong> in the 3-meter event (304.50) and\u00a0Raquel Gonzales\u00a0<\/strong>on the platform (227.40).<\/p>\n North Dakota swept the remaining four relays on the schedule.\u00a0Maddie Derby<\/strong>,\u00a0Steph Frey<\/strong>,\u00a0Katie Breault<\/strong> and\u00a0Emily Hamel<\/strong> finished first in the 200 medley relay in 1:40.51, while Frey,\u00a0Anna Andersen<\/strong>,\u00a0Alli Schwab<\/strong> and Hamel won the 200 free relay in 1:32.51.\u00a0Jess Warfield<\/strong>, Frey, Breault and\u00a0Marlena Pigliacampi<\/strong> comprised the winning 400 medley relay (3:42.54), and then in the final women’s event of the meet, Andersen, Frey,\u00a0Megan Wenman<\/strong> and Pigliacampi\u00a0<\/strong>finished the 400 free relay in 3:22.07.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nMen’s meet:<\/h3>\n