UNLV
The UNLV men's swimming and diving team swept both relays events on Wednesday night on the first day of action at the 2015 Western Athletic Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, held at the Palo Alto Aquatic Center. Thanks to the two wins and a fourth place score on diving, the Rebels are in third place with 95 points, one point ahead of last year's championship pace. Wyoming holds the first day lead at 107 points, while Air Force is next with 103, and Grand Canyon is fourth with 86.
The Rebels held off Grand Canyon to win the 200 medley relay, marking the seventh straight season the Rebels have won a conference title in the event. Henrique Machado, Boris Kulizhnikov, Dillon Virva and Or Sabatier helped UNLV turn in a time of 1:26.55, a NCAA 'B' provisional time and .31 ahead of GCY.
The next event was the 800 free relay, and for just the second time in the past five years and first since 2013, UNLV would claim a conference title in the event. Highlighting the relay was Tom Paco-Pedroni, who set a new UNLV record with his leadoff leg of 1:34.16 for the 200 free. That time is also a NCAA 'B' time. Following Paco-Pedroni on the relay was Samuel Lameynardie, Balint Batka and Kulizhnikov, and the four teamed up to record a winning time of 6:28.38, the second-fastest time in UNLV history.
The day's third event was the 3-meter diving, where junior Lucas James repeated his fourth place finish from a eyar ago, turning in a score of 291.75 after posting a 306.35 in the morning preliminaries.
The four-day meet continues on Thursday before concluding on Saturday night.
Northern Arizona
The Northern Arizona swimming & diving team felt they had the deepest group of divers in the Western Athletic Conference and that proved to be the case on the opening day of the 2015 WAC Championships. Junior Chelsea Jackson finished runner-up, her best career conference finish, in the 1-meter finals as NAU occupied half of the finals field. Behind the Lumberjack divers’ performance, the team finished the day in second place with 89 points.
“I thought the prelims was almost flawless,” said diving coach Nikki Huffman. “Our freshmen stepped up and everyone dove so consistently that I couldn’t ask for anything else. In the finals, to be honest, they were all so excited and they were a little too amped up. They still dove great though and it was a great first day. Whenever we can get four in the top eight, we feel excited about what we’re doing.”
Not only did the Lumberjacks place four divers in the top 16 finals – the most of any school – but all four qualified for the ‘A’ final after morning preliminaries. Jackson finished the prelims with the top score of 290.10, a season-best, and was joined in the top four by sophomore Alexa Geiger (264.10) and junior Carlye Townsend (254.35). Freshman Emma Simmonds qualified for the ‘A’ final in her very first career event at the conference championships in seventh with a score of 250.35.
Jackson would finish the finals with a score of 273.55 to earn a second-place finish and her first career silver medal. Geiger made a late push and edged her way into third-place on her final dive, posting a score of 268.65. Both of their finishes were career-bests at the WAC Championships.
Townsend matched her best career conference finish and improved on her 1-meter finish from a year ago, placing sixth in the finals with a score of 250.25. Simmonds would round out the top eight with a score of 241.90 as NAU made an immediate splash on its diving competition in the first of three diving events this week. Freshman Alyssa Loeffelman dove as an exhibition competitor and posted a score of 208.65 in the morning, which would have nabbed her the final spot in the consolation final.
To start off the evening session, the Lumberjacks notched a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay with a season-best time of 1:42.48. The team of sophomores Sara Lenhoff, Urte Kazakeviciute, senior Alexis Juergens and freshman Roni Houck bested their previous time by two seconds and was narrowly out-touched at the wall by New Mexico State by .14 seconds.
NAU’s 800 freestyle relay featured a freshman quartet of Kimmy Richter, Houck, Alina Staffeldt and Claire Hammond but was unfortunately disqualified during the race. All in all thought it was a successful first day of competition for NAU.
“Our divers were huge for us today and we’re going to need for them to dive that way the next two days,” said head coach Andy Johns. “Our medley relay splits were good and then we had an unfortunate disqualification in the 800 free relay, but the splits were good with four freshmen in the race. We have a lot of people ready to swim fast tomorrow so we’ll keep at it.”
The second day of the WAC Championships begin at 9:30 a.m. Arizona time on Thursday. The morning session will include preliminaries for the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and 3-meter diving. The four finals will then start at 5 p.m. and the night session will wrap up with the 200 free relay.
