Northern Arizona vs Idaho (Women)
- October 20, 2023
- Moscow, Idaho
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Courtesy: NAU Athletics
MOSCOW, Idaho (October 20, 2023) – The Northern Arizona Swimming and Diving team started off another WAC title defense strong in its first dual meet of the season, defeating the Idaho Vandals 176.5-123.5 at the UI Aquatic Center in Moscow on Friday afternoon.
Friday’s showing at Idaho marked continued dominance for the Lumberjacks in the opening match of WAC play, having won nine of their last 10 conference openers dating back to the 2013-14 season.
“I thought we had a great meet today,” head coach Andy Johns said. “We had a lot of great efforts and results. Our divers were dominant, and swimmers controlled the meet in the first half. Overall, it was a quality win, showing our depth against a tough Vandal team. I look forward to seeing our team at full strength against New Mexico in two weeks.”
NAU took first place in 12 of the 16 events, including having four of the five best scores in the 3-meter dives.
Mackenna Stocker led all NAU divers with a final score of 344.03, with second and third belonging to Maegan Jensen and Margaret Wesche, respectively, with 328.80 and 325.65.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Sophie Velitchkov, Trelise Dance, Caylah Jago and Elsa Musselman placed first in the relay, recording a 1:45.05 effort. NAU would go on to split the two relays with Idaho.
Following the medley was the longest event of the day, the 1,000-yard freestyle. Casey Craffey’s 10:21.79 was nearly five seconds quicker than the next fastest swimmer to win the 1,000.
Craffey’s first place in the 1,000 was the second of six consecutive first-place finishes to start the swimming events on Friday. Bena Koehn’s 1:53.61 in the 200-yard freestyle, Velitchkov’s 56.27 mark in the 100-yard backstroke, Trelise Dance’s 1:05.11, in the 100 breaststroke, and Maddy Rey’s 2:03.20 in the 200-yard butterfly would give NAU an early lead in the meet.
After closing the 3-meter dives with four of the top five scores, Northern Arizona did it again in the 1-meter, with Jensen and Stocker flipping spots from the first set of dives. Preston and Wesche ended with the fourth and fifth-highest tallies in the 1-meters.
The Vandals would take first in the following two events, but Cydnie Perkins bested the field in the 200-yard breaststroke with a 2:22.60 finish. In the longest freestyle event of the day, Maddy Rey would claim top billing with a time of 5:02.49.
Pentathlon champion Elsa Musselman followed that up by taking the next two events, the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley, with a 55.49 in the butterfly and a 2:06.12 in the medley.
Northern Arizona will host its dual meet of the season in its next time out, facing off with the New Mexico Lobos on Nov. 4 starting at 11 a.m. at the Wall Aquatic Center.
Courtesy: Idaho Athletics
MOSCOW, Idaho – The Idaho swimming and diving team battled late but couldn’t overcome an early deficit as the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks posted a 176.5-123.5 victory over the Vandals on Friday evening at the UI Swim Center.
Despite the defeat, the Vandals recorded four wins and seven runner-up finishes against the defending WAC champions. Ella Haskins, Sydney Heasman, Ginger Kiefer and the 400 free relay team each recorded a victory on the day to lead Idaho.
The first victory for the Vandals came midway through the meet as Haskins continued her dominance in the 50-yard freestyle with a first-place finish in 23.94. It was the junior’s second consecutive win in the 50 free this season.
Two events later the Vandals went 1-2 in the 100-yard freestyle with Heasman taking the top spot while Haskins placed second. Heasman finished in 52.72 to grab her second win in the 100 free while Haskins immediately followed with a time of 52.76.
Kiefer was next in line to post a first-place finish as she recorded a win in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:01.99.
Idaho ended its evening with one more strong performance in the final event, finishing first in the 400-yard freestyle with a time of 3:31.16 courtesy of Madelynn Butler, Rylie Jones, Heasman and Haskins.
The Vandals look to get back on track next week with a trip to Northern Colorado on Saturday, October 28.
