Colorado State Tops Northern Arizona, 160-140

Colorado State grabbed a dual meet win on the road against Northern Arizona this weekend. The final score was posted at 160-140 after CSU pulled ahead in the final two events of the meet. Full results can be found here.

Colorado State:

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Colorado State Rams swimming and diving squad won their first dual meet of 2016, defeating Northern Arizona 160-140 in Flagstaff, Arizona on Saturday.

Senior Jessica Shepard led the Rams in the pool, racking up four wins on the day. Shepard helped give CSU an early lead in the 200 medley relay, combining with senior Cristina Bassani, freshman Carmen Mand and sophomore Katie Kicklighter for the victory. Shepard also won in the 100 & 200 back and the 200 IM.

“It was a great meet. I couldn’t have been happier,” Head Coach Christopher Woodard said. “We did really, really well from top to bottom. I’m really happy and we are definitely headed in the right direction. They swam with high intensity and positivity.”

Kicklighter also helped CSU win four total events, competing in both the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay, as well as winning the 50 & 100 free individual events. Junior Karin Roh, Mand and junior Teagan Griffith also helped push the Rams to the win in the 200 free relay.

Senior Ariana Milone gave the Rams one diving win, posting a 300.75 score in the 3-meter dive.

CSU will return to Fort Collins to host Air Force on Jan. 30 for the Rams’ lone home meet in the spring season. CSU will honor all of its senior prior to the meeting against the Falcons.

NAU:

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Colorado State swept the top three spots in the 200m individual medley – the day’s second-to-final event – and spoiled the Northern Arizona swimming & diving team’s return home to the Wall Aquatic Center on Saturday, dealing the Lumberjacks a 160-140 defeat. NAU received a pair of individual wins each from junior Urte Kazakeviciute and sophomore Alina Staffeldt and another outstanding performance by its divers in the loss.

“It was a tough meet and the 200 IM changed the tide in (Colorado State)’s favor,” said head coach Andy Johns. “But I’m proud of the girls’ efforts and some of our freshman sprinters really had a great meet today. I give credit to Colorado State for showing up and taking it to us today, but there are bright spots for sure. We’ll learn from this and get ready for New Mexico next week.”

NAU had not competed at home since hosting Wyoming and LSU in its first weekend of dual meet competition on Oct. 30-31, but the back-and-forth meet versus the Rams on Saturday did not end up in the Lumberjacks’ favor.

Kazakeviciute won the 100m and 200m breaststrokes by narrow margins and getting the best of CSU’s Jenna Beaury in both. In the 100m breast, Kazakeviciute posted a time of 1:13.45 to out-touch Beaury at the wall by .08 seconds and later proceeded to win the 200m race with a time of 2:40.36 – just .07 seconds faster than her Colorado State competitor. Staffeldt won by more commanding margins in her two butterfly victories, winning the 200m with a time of 2:19.35 and the 100m with a time of 1:03.40.

The Lumberjack divers continued to shine taking the second, third and fourth scoring spots on 3-meter and going one-three-four on 1-meter. On 3-meter, junior Alexa Geiger placed second with a score of 285.75 which was two points better than senior Chelsea Jackson, who placed third with a score of 283.35. Freshman Raquel Gonzales completed NAU’s scoring in the event with a fourth-place finish and a season-best score of 274.50. Jackson then went on to win the 1-meter event with a score of 296.93. Senior Carlye Townsend and Geiger placed third and fourth with scores of 277.13 and 270.38 respectively.

“All of our divers were in the mix even outside the scoring positions,” said diving coach Nikki Huffman. “Chelsea getting the win on 1-meter was great. I was really happy with all of their performances and what they’re doing is great. They want to be even better though and that’s what I love about this group because I already think they’re diving consistent. We’re going to continue to clean things up and get better as we get closer to conference.”

Jackson and Geiger both earned qualifying scores yet again for the NCAA Zone Championships, while Townsend earned herself another qualifying mark on 1-meter. Not far from posting their first career Zone qualifiers were sophomore Emma Simmonds, who was less than seven points away with a career-best 1-meter score of 258.90, and Gonzales, who was less than six points away with her season-best 3-meter score. Sophomore Alyssa Loeffelman also set new career-bests on both boards with a 1-meter score of 239.70 and 3-meter score of 249.90.

Colorado State started the meet with a win in the 200m medley relay before senior Kendall Brown crushed her nearest competition by 21 seconds in the 800m freestyle with a winning time of 9:13.08. Sophomore Claire Hammond followed with a win in the 200m free with a time of 2:08.23 before the teams split the remaining four events before the first break with Kazakeviciute and Staffeldt each posting their first wins of the day in that stretch. In the 200m butterfly, finishing behind Staffeldt was Brown and sophomore Kimmy Richter as NAU completed its lone one-two-three sweep of the day.

The Rams came out of the break by winning the 100m free and 200m backstroke before NAU surged ahead in the meet by winning three consecutive events going into the final diving break. Kazakeviciute’s 100m breast win started the run, with Richter following in the 400m free with a time of 4:31.46 and Staffeldt cleaning up in the 100m fly.

NAU held a two-point lead, 133-131, heading into the 200 IM; however Colorado State stormed back by taking the top three spots. That left NAU needing to go one-two in the final event – the 200m freestyle relay – to win the meet. Although the Lumberjacks came up short, their ‘A’ team consisting of Staffeldt and three freshmen – Logan Neal, Ila Hughes and Andrea Schmidt – nearly pulled off the relay win to close the meet. The quartet posted a time of 1:46.73 but was a mere .01 seconds slower than Colorado State’s winning time of 1:46.72.

The two teams split the 16 events right down the middle with each team posting eight victories in yet another down-to-the-wire meet between NAU and Colorado State. The two teams’ previous meeting in Fort Collins, Colo. two seasons ago came down to the final relay with CSU prevailing as well.

NAU is right back in action next Saturday versus New Mexico in the Wall Aquatic Center at 11 a.m.

Swimming news courtesy of Colorado State and Northern Arizona Swimming & Diving.