Colorado State vs NAU vs North Texas (Women)
- Friday, January 6, 2023
- Flagstaff, Ariz.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
- Team Scores
- CSU 228, North Texas 72
- CSU 150, NAU 150
- NAU 231, North Texas 69
Courtesy: CSU Athletics
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Rams are still unbeaten.
However, Colorado State’s run of 20 consecutive dual victories added another notch, but not a second as it tied host Northern Arizona at the Wall Aquatic Center on Friday afternoon, 150-all. The Rams had no issue with North Texas with a 228-72 victory.
The team actually left the facility believing it had lost to the hosts by two points. With the actual results, the Rams are 7-0-1 on the season.
To forge the tie, Colorado State needed a strong effort in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, taking first and third to even the dual and remain unblemished. Factor in the facility had technology issues and head coach Christopher Woodard was trying to do math on the fly, he considered making changes to the final two foursomes.
“I would normally say it’s weird to have a tie, but in this case, it was such a see-saw battle back and forth and so evenly matched it almost seems – sad to say, because I’d rather us come out on top – but it almost seem apropos and kind of justified,” Woodard said. “The hard part was I was slowing up the meet so I could score it, and I was hand scoring it. I was the pain. I was going back and forth with changes, and finally I got to the point where they couldn’t get two of the last two events scored, so I we just stuck with what we had.”
The results building into the final race were just as impressive.
Erin Dawson and Lexie Trietley were both double winners on the day. Dawson led a 1-2 finish with Anika Johnson in the 200 free in one of the closest races of the day, Dawson touching in 1:54.52, Johnson just .04 behind her. Dawson would come back to win the final individual race of the day, the 200 individual medley in 2:07.63.
The freshman Trietley continued her strong sprint results, leading 1-2 finishes with Megan Hager in both the 50 and 100 freestyles, posting times of 23.15 and 51.28, respectively; Hager touched in 23.77 and 52.08. The Rams would win nine of the 16 events in the meet, with Maya White (1,000 free), Katie McClelland (100 breast), Amanda Hoffman (200 fly) and Lucy Matheson (200 back) all posting victories.
While Dawson’s 200 victory was impressive to Woodard, the result which really stood out to him was White in the 1,000 free at nearly 2,500 more feet of elevation than the team trains in at home.
“The biggest surprise to me was Maya being able to swim that time at 7,000 feet,” Woodard said. “I think altitude-adjusted, that comes down to a 10:15. That’s one of the best, 1,000s she’s ever swam.”
Matheson had a pair of runner-up finishes, in both the 100 back and 100 fly, the 100 backstroke the closest margin of the day as she was touched up by .02. McClelland was second in the 200 breast, and the 200 medley team opened with a second-place showing. NAU, the nine-time defending WAC champions, won the other seven events.
CSU piled up depth points along the way, with Claire Wright, Kendra Preski, Liza Lunina, Emily Chorpening, Olivia LeBlanc, Sarah Mundy, Hannah Sykes, Johnson, White and Dawson all adding top-five finishes. Jessica Albanna paced the Rams on the boards with a pair of placings, her best being third on the 1-meter board with a personal-best score of 276.05.
It was an emotional day, and by the time Woodard had guided his van to the exit for the hotel, the news came the final score was actually a tie, leading the team into a loud celebration. That rush of emotion, and the way they performed, reiterated to Woodard his team has built one of the most valuable characteristics – toughness.
“When we reached the end, we thought we’d lost by two points, and I could see the genuine hurt and a disappointment in their eyes,” he said. “It’s a hard thing to see, but it’s necessary for growth. It shows where our culture is at. They just continue to battle. I couldn’t be prouder.”
The Rams will remain in Phoenix through Wednesday to train before returning back to Fort Collins. They will return to competition Jan. 20-21 at the Air Force Academy, with duals against the Falcons, Seattle, Colorado Mesa and BYU.
Courtesy: NAU Athletics
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 6, 2023) — In their final combined meet of the season in Flagstaff, NAU Swimming and Diving had a strong showing, tying Colorado State 150-150 and defeating North Texas 231-69, while honoring outgoing seniors Emily Luberto, Brooke Seiber, Iliana Moore and Haley Mayhew.
“It was a great, great competition,” Head swimming coach Andy Johns said. “It was a great way to celebrate our seniors. The meet went back and forth.”
Colorado State entered the day on a 20-dual meet winning streak dating back to 2021, so a tie was something coach Johns still felt content about
“I think our team showed a lot of toughness,” Johns said. “A lot of the conversations across the way were ‘you got to be tough,’ because they were tough. They’re a really good team. They’re well coached, so yeah we feel good, as good as you can feel about a tie.”
Mayhew headlined the seniors’ success with her win in the 200-yard breaststroke as the only swimmer under two minutes and 20 seconds (2:19.98). She also led the Lumberjacks with a second-place finish in the 200-yard IM (2:08.35) and was followed by freshman Gracie Munk (2:12.76) and junior Delaney Phillips (2:12.89).
“I was really happy with our IM’ers,” Johns said. “To go 2-3-4, we just needed one more finish, one more touch in that relay and we could have come away with a victory.”
The Lumberjacks started with a win in the 200-yard medley relay (1:44.36). Mayhew, one of the seniors honored before the meet, as well as junior Sophie Velitchkov, junior Caylah Jago and freshman Elsa Musselman.
Velitchkov continued her winning ways with a first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (56.48), defeating Colorado State’s Lucy Matheson by .02 seconds (56.50).
Musselman also carried over the medley relay win into the 100-yard butterfly where she took first with a time of 55.62.
Close finishes were a theme throughout the meet, especially in the 500-yard freestyle where junior Maddy Rey (5:05.84) and sophomore Helena Robla-Alvarez (5:05.85) finished within one one-hundredth of a second of each other to lead the way in the event. Sophomore Casey Craffey finished right behind the two (5:09.16) to complete the NAU podium sweep.
NAU diving continued its dominance at home, owning the top of the standings in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events.
The Lumberjacks took the top five spots in the 3-meter dive with freshmen Grace and Margaret Wesche finishing first and third respectively with scores of 304.15 and 293.80. Junior Maegan Jensen slotted right in between the Wesche twins in second (300.60). Junior Reaney Preston (291.90) and senior Emily Luberto (288.25) finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Jensen followed up her second-place finish in the 3-meter with a win in the 1-meter (286.80). NAU had three point-scorers in the 1-meter as well, with freshman Mackenna Stocker claiming second (276.75) and Grace Wesche earning points in this event as well with a fourth-best score of 266.00.
“Certainly our divers going 1-2-3 and 1-2-4 was a huge, huge part of our success,” Johns said.
NAU Swimming and Diving will return to competition quickly as it rings in the new year with another meet against a pair of PAC-12 teams, Arizona and Washington State, in Tucson on Friday, Jan. 13 starting at 2 p.m. MST.
Johns said the back-to-back meets will help the team get back into a rhythm after the holiday break.
“I think this next week will be good for us to kind of adjust a little bit back to normal and then go down to Tucson, go down in elevation. We got to work on some details.”
To stay up to date with NAU Swimming and Diving, follow the Lumberjacks on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Courtesy: North Texas Athletics
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Senior Saylor Hawkins made her second NCAA Zone cut of the season after posting a 283.00 for a sixth-place finish in the 3-meter springboard in Friday’s dual meet between UNT, NAU and Colorado State.
Hawkins previously made the NCAA Zone cut for the 1-meter springboard at the Mean Green’s home meet against Little Rock in November.
Hawkins finished two spots ahead of teammate Brigid Krbec in the 3-meter, and fellow senior Olivia Dollar rounded out the top-10. Krbec and Hawkins finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in the 1-meter springboard.
In the pool, the Mean Green were led by several standout performances, highlighted by sophomore Shaena McCloud, who placed third in the 50 freestyle (23.98) and fifth in the 100 butterfly (57.89).
Diana Kolb finished fourth in the 100 backstroke (57.59), Laura Mazzotta finished fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.42) and Cierra Scully finished fifth in the 50 freestyle in 24.69.
Head coach Brittany Roth also praised Emily Ally’s 200 IM performance, and Tram Nguyen’s showing in the 200 backstroke, along with Noelle Marsh, who made her return from an injury suffered in the season opening meet to compete in 100 and 200 freestyle events as well as the 400 freestyle relay.
“Today’s meet was a test for our student-athletes after a week of winter training with the effects of altitude,” Roth said. “Racing in this environment is a real challenge, and the way our team responded to the adversity was with the best attitude and effort we could expect. In times of fatigue and frustration, our team responded with grit, heart, and unity. Given these circumstances, we had a lot of wins today: We got to have Noelle Marsh return to true competition for the first time since September; we had multiple athletes achieve best dual meet (non tech suit/rested) times of the season, and our senior class proved their strong leadership in what they want for this team and how they lead by example in and out of the water. Overall, in every way, this meet was breathtaking for the Mean Green.”
Diving coach Stephanie O’Callaghan said was pleased with her team adding new dives to their list in preparation for the upcoming conference meet next month.
“It was awesome to see Saylor get her 3-meter zone cut and Mackenzie (Ferguson) had a personal best on 3-meter with a really solid list,” O’Callaghan said. “A lot of the divers either added in new dives to their lists today or got some dives back and competed them for the first time this year. I’m looking forward to building on this meet and this week and excited to see what the divers do these next few weeks of meets.”
The Mean Green will return to competition next weekend at SMU in a meet that will also include American foes Rice and Tulane.
Fans can follow the program throughout the year on Twitter and Instagram at @MeanGreenSD.
