@UNCOSwim_Dive Falls at Home to NAU

Saturday, November 14

Greeley, Colo.

11:30 AM

University of Northern Colorado

214

Northern Arizona

11/14/2015 1:44:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving

The Bears went 1-1 on the weekend at home after dropping their meet against Northern Arizona Saturday

GREELEY, Colo. - UNC Swimming & Diving finished 1-1 at home this weekend, dropping its meet against Northern Arizona on Saturday afternoon, 214-86 following a 164.5-97.5 win over Colorado School of Mines Friday night.

Overall, the Bears had two first place finishes, five second place finishes, and finished third in seven total events in Saturday's meet.

"I thought the team did really well today," head coach Kelly McClanahan said. "I thought they swam a lot like they did at New Mexico where they swam with more confidence than they usually do against a team of this caliber. I told them last night that they just have to swim their own races, swim with confidence, and stay within their own lanes and their own heads and I felt they did that today.

Northern Colorado got the meet going with a 4:03.66 combined time for the 400 yard medley team of Valeria Mihhailova, Courtney Chrzas, Laura Ramirez, and Sydney Kimura. The time would have them finishing second in the race.

Sydney Kovar picked up another Bear second place finish in the 200 yard freestyle, touching the wall at 1:58.09.

One of two UNC first-finishes came in the third event (50 yard backstroke), when Mihhailova edged out an NAU swimmer to finish in 27.96.

Ramirez finished second individually in the 200 yard butterfly, posting a time of 2:12.60. She would also pick up second place in the 50 yard butterfly, touching the wall at 27.32.

To close out the meet, the Bear team of Kovar, Kim Kuni, Karlie O'Connell, and Mihhailova picked up first in the 200 yard freestyle relay, beating out the NAU team by one hundredth of a second (1:39.70 to 1:39.71).

"Jenny Brown had a fantastic mile; her pace was fantastic and she swam with a lot of confidence. Courtney Chrzas' 100 breast split on the medley relay was the best she's had all year, and then Val's 50 free in the 200 free relay at the end was probably the highlight of the meet. She had a slow exchange to anchor the relay, but she ended it really well. That just shows that they're going to fight for it and that's what I need them to be doing right now is fighting for every point in every race."

The divers fared similarly in the 1M and 3M, with Savanna Meadows earning a season high 270.37 points on the 1M for second place, and Taylor Walsh earning 249.38 on the 3M for a third place finish.

"Overall it was a pretty good meet," diving coach Chelsea Popplewell said. "We're still seeing changes that I need to be seeing, but now is when those changes need to be very evident and more consistent everyday. They'll get to the point where they're competitive, but right now it's still the little things that we have to keep chipping away at."

The Bears will split the team next weekend with the divers heading to Tucson, Arizona for the Wildcat Invite [Nov. 20-22], and the swimmers going to Houston, Texas for the Phil Hansel Invite [Nov. 19-21].

For more information on the Bears this season, check out UNCBears.com, visit the official Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter at @UNCOSwim_Dive.