Oct. 31, 2012
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The New Mexico swimming and diving team has a bit of a hard task at hand this weekend, not only are they swimming against two conference foes and a bitter in-state rival, but it just so happens that one of those conference rivals is a top 25 program.
San Diego State, Colorado State and New Mexico State all travel to Albuquerque this weekend for a two day tri dual meet in the second home meet of the season for the Lobos.
New Mexico currently stands at 1-1 on the season. After a season opening win against the Falcons of Air Force with a score of 167-143 the Lobos fell in an extremely close contest to the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona.
“The meet against NAU was a tough one, but I like what I see from the team,” said first year Head Coach Kunio Kono following the loss to NAU. “I really think this team has a lot of potential and I’m very excited to see them fulfill that potential.”
If any weekend is a good test of measurement of that potential and where the Lobos are it’s this weekend. San Diego State, Colorado State and NMSU are all tough teams who are all skilled in their own way.
The Aztecs, who finished second to Boise State at the Mountain West conference championships last year with 742 points, return 17 letter winners- including 12 all-conference honorees from the 2011-2012 team. Coming into this weekend’s meet in Albuquerque SDSU is undefeated and they are ranked 16th in the nation in the Endless Pools/CollegeSwimming.com poll. The Aztecs are also sitting in first place in the conference.
Senior swimmer Katelyn Weddle leads the group of Aztec returners and she will look to defend her title in the 100-yard breaststroke. On the diving end of the pool, junior Anna Steiner is the leader off the boards. She earned All-Mountain West honors last season after finishing eighth off the 1-meter, fifth off the 3-meter and second off the platform.
For the Rams of Colorado State, the meet will be a chance for them to pick up their first win of the season. They current stand at 0-2 after falling to Denver in the opening meet of the season by a final score of 181-117 and then losing to fellow MW affiliate Wyoming by a final of 167.5-132.5. Colorado State was picked to finish fifth, one spot ahead of the Lobos in the preseason coaches’ poll. After a string of rather successful years, CSU is a program in rebuilding mode under second year coach Christopher Woodward.
Last season the Rams finished seventh, out of eight teams, at the MW championships, however, they are returning 10 seniors, five school-record holders, three 2012 all-conference honorees and one conference champion in sophomore Tove Tornstorm- who claimed first place in the 200-yard breaststroke last season at conference.
As if those two teams weren’t a handful for the Lobos, New Mexico is also welcoming the Aggies of NMSU to Seidler Natatorium. This is the first of two meetings between the squads; UNM will travel down to Las Cruces on Saturday, Feb. 2 in what will be NMSU’s final meet of the season.
When the two teams met last season, the Lobos broke a five year losing skid to the Aggies as the meet ended in a 150-150 tie.
The quad meet will be the second event of the season for the Aggies. They stand at 1-0 after taking down the Falcons of Air Force 155-145 in the season opener in Las Cruces. NMSU is returning 13 letter winners from last year’s team.The meet begins this Friday at 3 pm with the 200-yard freestyle relay, in all eight events will be held on Friday and eight on Saturday.
Action will resume on Saturday at 10 a.m. with the 200-yard medley relay kicking things off.