Northern Arizona
Junior Chelsea Jackson was one of three Northern Arizona divers to capture season-best scores on platform at the Air Force Diving Invitational. In just the team’s second – and final – appearance on platform this season before the WAC Championships, Jackson placed a team-best 12th in the event on Friday, the first of two days for NAU at the competitive invite.
“On platform, we dove pretty consistently especially considering how little we are up there,” said diving coach Nikki Huffman. “I was impressed with the freshmen with what they are doing, especially because that was only their second meet up there, and they all performed very solid. I was more pleased with platform than 1-meter.”
Jackson’s 12th place finish led the five NAU divers on platform as she registered a season-best score of 200.15, finishing second among divers from the WAC. Sophomore Alexa Geiger placed 25th with a score of 170.40 and junior Carlye Townsend was two spots behind with her own season-best score of 167.50.
The team’s freshmen, Emma Simmonds and Alyssa Loeffelman, dove well also finishing 31st and 33rd respectively. Simmonds was able to post her best platform score of the season, 152.55, while Loeffelman was not far off from her score at the Wildcat Diving Invite in November with a score of 136.60.
The marathon day started in the early morning with the Lumberjacks placing three divers in the top 20 during the 1-meter preliminaries. NAU’s returners – Jackson, Geiger and Townsend – finished in successive order in the 16th, 17th and 18th spots. All three made a late push to claim a spot in the finals, but finished less than 10 points shy of the top 12 finalists. Jackson was the lead finisher with a score of 230.95, followed closely by Geiger at 229.05 and Townsend at 227.20.
NAU was the only WAC school with multiple athletes in the top 20 of the 1-meter competition among conference opponents Grand Canyon, Idaho, New Mexico State and Northern Colorado. Loeffelman and Simmonds rounded out the Lumberjacks in 36th and 38th respectively on 1-meter. Loeffelman recorded a score of 197.40 and Simmonds totaled a score of 193.25.
“Everyone had great tops on 1-meter but we were missing our bottoms a little so we missed the finals but there was still some very good diving,” Huffman said. “Mentally we handled ourselves really well, but honestly I think they’re trying a little too hard. They just have to relax and let it happen a little more.”
The Lumberjack divers will wrap up the Air Force Diving Invite Saturday at 11:30 a.m. with the start of 3-meter preliminaries. Meanwhile in Las Vegas, Nev., the NAU swimmers will be engaged in a double dual with UNLV and Wyoming starting at 1 p.m.
Utah
Jacob Crayne took first on the three-meter event during the first day at the Air Force Diving Invitational.
Crayne took home the win on the three-meter with a score of 391.10. There were 26 divers competing in the event.
"Jake put together another great on three-meter as he continues to flirt with 400. He's diving exceptionally well and he feels real comfortable here at Air Force,” said Utah head diving coach Richard Marschner.
Amanda Casillas came away with a sixth-place finish on the one-meter event with a score of 250.45.
"Amanda did really well to place so high on one-meter as she hasn't been able to dive since the Denver meet last Friday. Unfortunately, her illness caused us to decide to scratch her for her best event, tower, but she's going to give three-meter a go tomorrow."
Wyoming
Sophomore Keely Bishop won the 1-meter springboard and junior Kari Campbell set a school record on the platform dive on the opening day of the Air Force Diving Invite to lead the University of Wyoming diving team on Friday. Bishop became the first Cowgirl to win an event at the Air Force Diving Invite since Stephanie Ortiz won the 1-meter board in 2010.
“It was one of the best days I have seen this group have collectively,” UW diving coach Chelsea Popplewell said. “We really came back and were strong in the finals.”
Bishop tallied a score of 282.75 in the finals to walk away with the title in the 50-diver field. She improved on her score of 246.80 in the preliminaries. Campbell also had a nice day on the 1-meter springboard finishing third with a score of 274.
Campbell broke her own school she set at the Mountain West Championship last season tallying an impressive score of 249.60 finishing second in the event. Her mark ranks second in the conference this season. Bishop finished fourth on the platform with a career-best mark of 222.85.
“Keely has been diving very well and I know she is capable of winning an event,” Popplewell said. “For Kari to have that good of a showing in her second time in the event this season is amazing.”
On the men’s side, sophomore Jacob Rehmeier finished 10th on the 3-meter springboard with a mark of 271.60. Freshman Ryan Russi also earned a spot in the finals finishing 12th with a tally of 251.10.
