FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Oct. 10, 2024) – The Northern Arizona women’s swimming and diving team will compete in its annual Blue vs Gold meet followed by an away meet at Arizona State this week. The Blue team will be defending their title as they defeated the Gold team 62-42 at Wall Aquatic Center last year.
Featuring 12 events that will get underway at 2 p.m. Mountain Standard time on Friday Oct. 11, the swimmers will take part in the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle, 150 butterfly, 100 freestyle, 150 backstroke, 500 freestyle, 150 breaststroke and the 400 freestyle relay.
Boosted by six first place finishes in the 10 swimming events, the 2023 edition of the Blue vs. Gold scrimmage featured the Blue team’s largest margin of victory at the event since 2021 and the second time in the last seven years that the score has been 62-42 in favor of the Blue team.
The Blue team took the first seven points by winning the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:45.40, defeating their Gold counterparts by more than four seconds.
Gold would strike right back as Bena Koehn took first prize in the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:53.98 performance. The Gold team took six of the nine points from the day’s second event to get within four at 10-6. Koehn ended the day with two first-place finishes, with the 200 freestyle, and the 100 freestyle.
The 200-yard individual medley followed, and the Gold team, led by former Lumberjack Abigail Tashlein, recorded a 2:12.11 to secure the second consecutive Gold first-place finish. Fellow former Lumberjack Sophie Velitchkov, would end the streak by winning the 50-yard freestyle with a mark of 24.04 seconds.
Current junior, Elsa Musselman, who took the 2023 NAU Pentathlon crown, edged out the Gold team’s Maddy Rey by 1.04 seconds to claim the best time in the 150-yard butterfly. Rey would end the day with a first-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:07.97.
Blue would claim two of the top three spots in the next two events, the 150-yard backstroke and the 500-yard freestyle. The Blue team got first and second in the 150 backstroke from Gracie Munk and Annie Carlton. Casey Craffey and Helena Robla-Alvarez would finish two and three in the 500 free.
The last individual event of the day would be won by the Blue team’s Cydnie Perkins in the 150-yard breaststroke with a 1:44.90 before the Blue team would win its second relay event in the afternoon.
The intrasquad scrimmage is the final preparation for the Lumberjacks before beginning the season the next day at Arizona State.
On the following day, Saturday Oct. 12, the Lumberjacks will head to Tempe, Ariz. to compete at Arizona State. Joining them will be two other in-state rivals – Arizona and Grand Canyon. The meet will take place in Mona Plummer Aquatic Center and will begin at 12 p.m. MST. The meet will not be streamed, but live results can be found on Meet Mobile.
Arizona State began their 2024 season with a meet against UNLV, where the women’s teams defeated the Rebels, winning 236-64.
Arizona is competing for the first time this season after having their Red & Blue intrasquad meet two weeks ago. Last season, the women’s team finished in 7th at PAC-12 conference championships.
Grand Canyon had their season opener last week against Seattle and California Baptist, beating both teams in the tri-meet. The GCU women’s team went 11-6 and placed 2nd at the WAC championships, and placed 10th out of 54 teams at the CSCAA National Championships.
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