NAU Swim And Dive Still In Second At WAC; Natalie Hughes Earns Gold in 3-Meter Diving

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Lumberjacks earned their first-ever gold medal on a diving event at the WAC Championships as senior Natalie Hughes took first place with 317.85 points. After also setting two more school records on the day for a total of five at the meet, NAU is holding on to second place of eight teams, behind Nevada, with one day of competition left.

Nevada is first with 499 points, NAU is second with 433, and Hawaii is third with 383. Rounding out the field is New Mexico State with 329, San Jose State with 312, Idaho with 215, Boise State with 164, and San Diego with 159.

“We’re kind of bouncing off the walls right now,” said diving coach Nikki Huffman. “Its been really fun and really exciting to do so well here this week. We had four finalists tonight, which was huge, and I’ve never seen Natalie dive that well on 3-meter. For her, and the others, to do it at the conference championships is awesome.”

NAU head coach Andy Johns noted that the Lumberjacks “wouldn’t be in the position we’re in without our divers. Having Natalie win on the 3-meter was fantastic for us,” said Johns. “That speaks volumes about Nikki and all the divers.”

NAU earned a second medal in 3-meter diving as senior Danielle Borth took the bronze with 308 points. Freshmen Megan Collier and Taryn Harris were also finalists, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.

Freshman Kim Kopra broke her own school record in the 100 breaststroke from earlier in the season twice in one day. She placed second in the prelims with a time of 1:03.91, and bettered it to 1:03.33 to take the silver medal in the finals. Her finals time is an NCAA provisional qualifying time.
Freshman Meredith Egloria placed first in the prelims of the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.31, which is the second best mark all-time at NAU, but dropped down to eighth in the finals with a time of 58.38.

Sophomore Rachael Foe earned the bronze medal in the 100 butterfly with a career-best time of 55.53 which is just .01 seconds off the school record. Renee Rother and Tami Binek were also finalists, placing 11th and 12th, respectively.
Danielle Filipp placed eighth in the 200 freestyle after placing fifth in the prelims with a career-best time of 1:52.84. Kimber Morelli was NAU’s lone swimmer in the 400 individual medley and placed ninth in 4:34.55.

NAU finished the day with its fifth school record of the meet in the 400 freestyle relay, as Egloria, Kopra, Foe and Tami Binek teamed up to earn the silver medal with a time of 3:48.44.

“We had some good swims and some really gutsy swims,” said Johns at the end of the day. “We’ll be looking to hold on to our place tomorrow, and if we can make a run at Nevada, we’ll definitely be looking to do that as well.”

Competition finishes up tomorrow beginning at 10 a.m. (MST) and concluding with the finals at 5:30 p.m. (MST). The platform diving event will be held in the afternoon.

For more information, contact Karen Auerbach: (928) 523-6330.