Meet Results
- December 16, 2017
- San Diego, California
- Meet Results
- Score
- Northern Arizona 174, UC San Diego 100
Press Release
Courtesy of Northern Arizona Athletics
Senior Kimmy Richter and freshman Sarah O’Connor each won two events and the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team won 11 of 15 events to defeat San Diego easily, 174-100, Saturday morning. The Lumberjacks dominated the dual meet, which also included Cal State East Bay, to win their fourth dual of the fall.
“We had some good results today for sure after a week of exams and a day of travel,” said head coach Andy Johns. “We’re really pleased with the results overall. It was a solid team effort all the way around, and a great way to end the semester.”
In the lone diving event of the day, freshman Jenny Cheetham collected her first career dual meet win on 1-meter with a season-best score of 309.75.
Cheetham was one of two Lumberjack divers to eclipse 300 points as junior Tatiana Kurach placed second with a score of 308.55. Junior Christina Torrente snagged the third scoring spot with a score of 276.83. All six of NAU’s divers finished ahead of San Diego’s only diver on the leaderboard.
“Everyone did really well and they stepped up,” said diving coach Nikki Huffman. “One through six, we didn’t hit everything but we were really good. Tati and Jenny for hitting their dives, and for Jenny to pull out the win, that was good for her.”
Richter won the 200 and 500 freestyles while O’Connor swept the backstrokes to pace the Lumberjacks. Richter posted times of 1:52.72 in the 200 and 5:00.63 in the 500. O’Connor turned in winning times of 57.41 in the 100 back and 2:05.11 in the 200 back.
The Lumberjacks started the meet and ended it with relay wins, first with O’Connor, freshman Hope Williams, senior Alina Staffeldt and freshman Elisa Rodriguez clocking a time of 1:46.85 to win the 200 medley relay. Staffeldt, Rodriguez, Richter and senior Roni Houck closed with a time of 3:34.97 to win the 400 freestyle relay to cap the dual.
Redshirt junior Monique King won the 1,000 free easily with a time of 10:18.08 with freshman Sam Milewski placing second with a time of 10:31.63. The 1,000 was the first of three straight individual wins for NAU with Richter’s 200 free and O’Connor’s 100 back victories to follow.
After Williams and junior Sarah Takach went two-three in the 100 breaststroke, Staffeldt claimed first in the 200 butterfly by more than two seconds with a time of 2:03.20. Rodriguez and Houck proceeded to take the top two spots in the 50 free with times of 24.35 and 24.37 respectively, before finishing in the second and third spots in the 100 free.
O’Connor led the first of two one-two-three sweeps in the 200 back, touching the wall five seconds ahead of freshman Lauren Hazel with sophomore Fernanda Montiel pulling in third. Takach followed by winning the 200 breast with a time of 2:25.39, which led into Richter, King and Milewski sweeping the top three spots in the 500 free.
Staffeldt and freshman Niamh McDonagh were NAU’s top finishers in the 100 fly and 200 individual medley respectively, with each ‘Jack placing runner-up in their events.
NAU will next compete against Arizona in Tucson on Friday, Jan. 5 at 2 p.m.