NAU vs Utah Tech (Women)
- January 24-5, 2025
- St. George, Utah
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Courtesy: NAU Athletics
ST. GEORGE, Utah (Jan. 25, 2024) – The Northern Arizona women’s swimming team wrapped up the second day of its dual meet against WAC rivals, Utah Tech, with an impressive performance.
The Lumberjacks staged a comeback from Friday’s results, defeating the Trailblazers 204-148.
“Today’s meet was a great opportunity to bounce back from yesterday,” head swimming coach Andy Johns said. “The team showed tremendous resilience and their results proved it. We are proud of their willingness to prepare and their approach to racing today. We are looking forward to a smooth ride home and getting ready for senior day next Saturday.”
The meet kicked off with the 200-yard medley relay, where Northern Arizona’s A team – comprising Gracie Munk, Cydnie Perkins, Elsa Musselman, and Kokona Watanabe, secured first place at 1:43.64.
Munk claimed two additional golds, winning the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:53.82 and dominating the 100-yard butterfly, finishing in 56.74.
Casey Craffey set a season-best in the 1000-yard freestyle, clocking an impressive 10:00.26 to take first place. Kylie Ney followed in second with a time of 10:12.37. Craffey also took gold in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing in 4:55.42
Jamie Delwardt contributed two silver medals for the Lumberjacks. She finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 57.75 and in the 200-yard backstroke with a 2:02.57 performance.
Trelise Dance was the fastest Lumberjack in the 100-yard breaststroke, claiming second place at 1:04.30. She also secured third place in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:20.76.
Northern Arizona dominated the 200-yard butterfly, taking the top three spots. Musselman clinched first place with a time of 2:03.51, followed by Helena Robla in second (2:04.89) and Isabel Krasht in third (2:05.84).
Robla also excelled in the 100-yard freestyle, where she was the fastest Lumberjack, finishing second with a time of 52.01.
Katarina Klatt earned silver in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing in 24.21.
Perkins claimed gold in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:16.18. She was also part of Northern Arizona’s B team, which recorded a 3:29.48 in the 400-yard freestyle relay to take second place. The team included Klatt, Lily Powell, and Munk.
Francesca Criscione led the way in the 400-yard individual medley, securing first place with a time of 4:26.84, while Ney earned second with a 4:29.48 finish.
The Lumberjacks will next host the spring installment of the Lumberjack Diving Invite from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1. Meanwhile, the swimmers will welcome New Mexico on Feb. 1 for their final home meet before the WAC Championships.
Courtesy: Utah Athletics
Utah Tech swimming collected six event victories in the Trailblazers’ final home dual meet of the 2024-25 season against WAC foe Northern Arizona on Senior Day Saturday at the HPC Pool.
Mary Sims Cross picked up Utah Tech’s first race win of the morning in the 200-yard backstroke by just under two seconds with a season-best time of 1:59.85.
Yara Olsen followed suit one event later in the 100 breaststroke when she touched the wall first with a season-best 1:03.79. Olsen would later post a season-best time in the 200 breast with a runner-up 2:19.20.
Senior Mandy Farnum, swimming in her final home meet, recorded her fourth-career individual triumph, which came in the 50 free in a time of 24.11.
Farnum’s win the first of three-straight for the Trailblazers as Natalia Zmierczak claimed victory in the 100 free with a season-best 51.96, while Grace Benson clocked a season-PR in the 100 back with a winning time of 57.18.
In the relays, the team of Cross, Benson, Gabby Henry and Farnum swam the ninth-fastest 200 medley relay time in program history with a runner-up 1:44.15.
Then in the final event of the day, the foursome of Farnum, Mallory, Benson and Zmierczak recorded the fourth-fastest 400 free relay time in school history with an event-winning 3:26.84.
“We’re really pleased with the progress we are making, this was a fantastic performance by our team,” said Head Coach Shawn King. “We came in fired up on Friday night to race in some fun relays and set some school records, and then we turned in some very solid swimming today against NAU, which is a phenomenal opponent.
“We’re really excited, we stack up against the best in the [WAC] conference right now pretty well and we’re looking forward to racing again in a month [at the WAC championships],” King added.
In all, a 21 combined season best marks were posted in the Trailblazers’ final dual tune-up before next month’s WAC championship meet.
Utah Tech will close out the 2024-25 regular season on Friday, Feb. 14, when the Trailblazers travel to Las Vegas to swim at the UNLV First Chance Invite.
