DENVER - Northern Colorado's Valeria Mihhailova and Northern Arizona's Chelsea Jackson have been named Western Athletic Conference Swimmer and Diver of the week, respectively, for Jan. 18-24.
Mihhailova, a sophomore from Johvi, Estonia (Johvi Gymnasium) picked up top points in both the 100 back and 50 free for both meets and aided in a second place finish overall (among the three teams) in both relays to help the Bears to their win over both opponents. She swam the 100 back in a time of 58.08 and the 50 free in a time of 24.89.
Jackson, a senior from Flagstaff, Ariz. (Northland Prep) had a record day in NAU's dual meet versus New Mexico in front of her hometown crowd, setting new career-best scores on both springboards and winning both events. She started her day by breaking her own Wall Aquatic Center 1-meter pool record of 303.15 with a new lifetime best score of 315.68, which allowed her to move up to third all-time in the school record book. Jackson made an even bigger leap on NAU's all-time top performances with her career-best winning 3-meter score of 331.88 and is now second all-time in school history. Both performances led a one-two-three sweep for NAU on the diving boards.
Other swimmer nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Michaela Paige earned a double for the Roadrunners on Saturday, picking up wins in the 200 and 500 free. The senior swimmer posted a time of 1:55.58 to win the 200 free and finished first in the 500 free at 5:15.67. Idaho's Cara Jernigan finished first place in the 100 breast and the 200 breast. Jernigan also finished third in the 200 IM and was a member of the winning 200 medley relay team.
Other diver nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Carlee Burks continued an outstanding season by recording her third straight score of 310 points or more on the 3-meter board on Saturday. Burks' score of 310.35 helped her win the event after she completed the double by taking the 1-meter board with a score of 298.70, her second-best in the event this season. Idaho's Nikki Imanaka placed first on the 1-meter and 3-meter scoring 293.78 and 262.20. Northern Arizona's Claire Hammond won both of her individual events, posting victories in the 100m and 200m freestyles during NAU's dual meet versus New Mexico on Saturday. In her first event of the day, Hammond posted a winning time of 2:07.47, just edging out her teammate and over three seconds better than UNM's top finisher to win the 200m freestyle. Northern Colorado's Savanna Meadows took first place in both events on the night, putting up top-team points for UNC for the divers to aid in both of their wins.