ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – After nearly a month off from competition, the University of New Mexico swimming and diving team prepare to get back into the pool.
The swimmers head to Columbia, Mo., Thursday to participate in the Mizzou Invite for the first time, while the divers will travel to Tucson, Ariz., Friday to compete in the Wildcat Diving Invitational for the fourth consecutive season.
New Mexico will be expecting Mountain West affiliate UNLV at the three-day Mizzou Invite who will be competing with a full roster of 27 athletes, 15 of which are letter winners. The Rebels currently hold a 1-1 season record after falling in a tri-meet to Arizona and Utah and taking the win against BYU in a home dual-meet.
The Mizzou Tigers will host this week’s meet with 18 returning athletes and eight freshmen to complete their roster. They have had a successful season thus far as they are 2-0 in their conference and 5-0 in dual competition.
The Lobo divers will battle in the springboard events with Boise State and will also see UNLV at the Wildcat Diving Invitational this week. The Broncos are coming off an overall 3-0 season record. Their team includes six divers, two (Erin Kohlbeck and Kacee Olson) who finished as top divers in Mountain West final standings at the USC Diving Invitational recently and another (Jordan Marthens) who made up as the Bronco’s third diver to leave the invite with a top-10 ranking.
UNM’s time off from official meets meant three hard weeks of practice. The Lobos earlier meets helped in accumulating competitive experience for the season and also determined what the team needed to focus and train on during their period from competition.
New Mexico’s 26 days of pure training will be put to the test as the team expects tough competition in the upcoming week at both the Mizzou Invite and Wildcat Diving Invitational.
Head coach Kunio Kono says that both events will gauge where the team is at in this point of the season. He includes the high level of competition the swimmers and divers are up against but expresses excitement and confidence to take on the challenge.
The Mizzou Invite will begin on Thursday, Nov. 20 until Saturday, Nov. 22 while the Wildcat Diving Invitational will start up Friday, Nov. 21 and finish on Sunday, Nov. 23. Both are all day events.