The Air Force women’s swimming and diving team began the new year with a 175-121 victory over Northern Colorado at Cadet Natatorium on Friday. The Falcons secured nine top individual finishes in the 18 swim and dive events.
“It’s been six weeks since we have raced a meet and today was an opportunity to get the cobwebs out and be ready for championship season,” said head coach Colleen Murphy.
Kacey Hu led on the 1-meter springboard with a score of 267.15, followed by teammates Lexton Gregory, Lulu Semakula, and Chloe Perkins, who rounded out the top four spots. On the 3-meter springboard, Chloe Perkins finished first with a score of 285.83.
In relay competition, Air Force swept the top three positions in the 400 medley relay. The A team—Kai-Min Tsuei, Naomi Furman, Amber Martin, and Lily Larson—took first place with a time of 3:50.02.
Lily Larson won the 200 freestyle in 1:52.52, while Brynn Bond, Hannah Seal, and Elizabeth Sistrunk finished close behind. Kai-Min Tsuei claimed first in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.73; Eliza Black was second at 58.21.
Freshman Natalie Doig took first place in both the 200 butterfly (2:08.02) and the 100 butterfly (58.06). Ryan Mills recorded victories in both sprint freestyle events: she swam a time of 24.12 seconds in the 50 free and clocked in at 51.89 seconds for the win in the 100 free.
Elizabeth Sistrunk posted her best finish this season by winning the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:04.76.
In distance races, Abby Miller placed second in the 1000 free (10:48.68), followed by Sadie Hartig and Grace Nickell finishing third and fourth respectively.
Naomi Furman earned silver (1:03.62) and Mandy Fleetwood bronze (1:06.00) in the 100 breaststroke event.
Team captain Maeve Linscott finished second in the 200 breaststroke (2:21.65), just ahead of Fleetwood and Furman who also placed among top finishers.
For longer distances, Brynn Bond came second in the 500 freestyle (5:15.10), joined by Hartig and Katie Andrist taking third and fourth places respectively.
Grace Nickell had Air Force’s highest result in the individual medley event by placing third overall with a time of 4:44.78 for the Falcons’ only podium finish there.
The meet concluded with Air Force’s team of Mills, Tsuei, Lily Bachl, and Larson winning first place in the concluding relay race—the women’s 200 free relay.
“We won a lot of close races today and showed our amazing depth as a team,” Murphy added after competition ended on Friday evening.”We need to be ready to go against CSU and UNM tomorrow.”
Air Force is scheduled to return to action against conference rivals Colorado State University and University of New Mexico at Cadet Natatorium on Saturday January 10 at 11 a.m.
