Courtesy: NAU Athletics
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (October 1st, 2021) – The Lumberjacks took part in their last intrasquad meet, wrapping up preseason, with a final score of 74-30 in favor of the blue team.
The blue team started off the meet with a bang, taking a close win in the 200 yard medley relay, beating out the gold team by less than one second. Competing in this event for team blue was Sophie Velitchkov, Jane Shroufe, Ashley Lawrence, and Maddy Rey.
“This event is all about wins, and the blue team came through and got the wins. Overall there was really good racing and a big improvement from a couple weeks ago and that’s what we’re looking for, to just keep getting better,” Head Coach Andy Johns said.
Helena Robla-Alvarez made an impressive print on the day, with two first places finishes for the blue team in the 200 yard free (1:57.16) and the 500 yard free (5:15.50). On top of her first place finishes, Robla finished second in the 100 yard free (55.66), which was her only other event of the day.
Leading the gold team was sophomore Victoria Knapp who topped both diving events of the day with a score of 296.10 in the 1-meter diving, and a score of 286.50 3-meter diving. Adding to the old teams wins was Jamie Dellwardt in the 200 IM finishing with a time of 2:09.61. Delaney Phillips brought the old team their fourth event win in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:07.62.
Maegan Jensen finished right behind Knapp in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives for the blue team.
“Victoria and Maegan were very close, and throughout the meet it could have gone either way. I expect those two to go at it all season, I’m very impressed with them. Aly Jones did great at 1-meter. I’m very pleased with all of them right now, this is the week that we get off all of our hard dives,” Associate Head Coach Nikki Kelsey said.
Sophie Velitchkov added an individual win in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.63, along with the team blue relay wins in both the 200 yard medley and the 200 yard free. The relay wins for the blue team brought the team to their 74-30 overall win in today’s meet.
“We usually taking the month of September to get ready and October we will get a little more specific. Now, we are in a good place where we can ramp it up a little bit,” Johns added.
The Lumberjacks will be back in action in Flagstaff on Oct.16th to take on Ottawa University and Arizona Christian for the teams first competition on the schedule.
