Nov. 15, 2010
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico swim team will be on the road this week as it travels to Houston to participate in The Phill Hansel Cougar Classic hosted by The University of Houston, while the dive team goes to Tucson to participate in the Arizona Diving Invite hosted by The University of Arizona.
Both teams will be competing from Nov. 18-20 with events taking place all day.
The Phill Hansel Cougar Classic features teams from across the country such as LSU, SMU Houston, and Tulane. LSU and SMU are currently 18 and 22 in the Top 25 polls respectively, while Houston is receiving votes.
Coach Tracy Ljone is excited for the opportunities the invite gives the team. “We’re going into this invite and swimming against some of the best teams in the country,” she said. “We have the opportunity to swim season best times, and this will in turn help us with seeding for the Mountain West Conference Championships.”
This Thursday marks the first time the Lobos make the trip to Houston for the Invite.
“We have quite a bit of ladies on the team from Texas, so we thought it would be fun to go out there and let some of the parents see them compete,” said Ljone.
Preliminaries for the Cougar Invite will be held in the morning with finals being held in the afternoon.
While the swim team is competing in Houston, the UNM divers will be in Tucson for the Arizona Diving Invitational; this is the third year the Invitational is held. The Lobos have participated each year.
The Arizona Diving Invitational will feature 88 divers from 18 different schools around the country. Schools that have confirmed participation include: Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, Buffalo, BYU, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Arizona, San Diego State, San Jose State, Southern California, Stanford, UC San Diego, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Of the schools named above 5 are currently ranked in the CollegeSwimming.com Top 25 poll with Stanford currently ranked 1.
Diving coach Abel Sanchez looks forward to Tucson each year not only because of the proximity between Albuquerque and Tucson, but because of the heavy competitive atmosphere.
“We are looking to be aggressive during this meet,” said Sanchez. “The competition at this meet is tough, and we’ll get an early showing of our NCAA Zone Meet.”
“We enjoy diving and training over in Arizona; it’ll be a good experience for our ladies.”
Results for both meets will be available on Golobos.com following completion of each day’s events.