ALBUQUERQUE- N.M. – Three days of consecutive competition comes to a close for the University of New Mexico swimmers as they finish off the Mizzou Invite with a combined team score of 227 points for seventh place.
The Lobos were up against eight other teams who proved to be strong competitors since day one of competition at the Mizzou Aquatic Center.
They finished with the following rankings: University of Missouri for first place with 1,118 points, FIU for second place with 586 points, Nebraska followed for third place with 513 points, Illinois for fourth place with 506 points, Drury collected a total of 424 points for fifth place, West Virginia University for sixth place with 382 points, Northern Colorado for eighth place with 104 points, and UNLV takes ninth place after accumulating 34 points.
New Mexico was seen in five different races for the final day of the Mizzou Invite.
Junior swimmer Anna Lengyel started the meet off for the Lobos with the 1,650-yard freestyle event where she finished with a time of 17.20.80 for 13th place.
The 200-yard backstroke followed. Caitlin Gardiner raced a preliminary time of 2:01.40 and bumped up her A-final time to 2:00.58.
Shayla King was the first finisher out of four other Lobos to compete in the next race, the 100-yard freestyle.
King clocked in a preliminary time of 50.87 and a B-final time of 50.78 for 10th place. Morgan Ginnis also competed in the B-final group and finished with a preliminary time of 51.52 and a final time of 51.89 for 16th place. Fanni Pataki and Amelia Braul both represented UNM in the C-final group and recorded preliminary times of 51.90 and 52.14 and final times of 51.42 and 51.62 for an 18th and 20th finish, respectively. Anna Lilliestrom competed in the D-final round and completed the race with a 52.73 preliminary time and 52.63 final time for 29th place.
First year swimmer, Celine Bertrand, gave a strong performance in the 200-yard butterfly as she took the highest place for the Lobos in the aforementioned event. All of which competed in the B-final round.
Bertrand finished with a preliminary time of 2:03.99 and final time of 2:02.93 for ninth place.
Lengyel made her way back on to the charts as she raced a preliminary time of 2:03.33 and final time of 2:04.56 for 11th place in the same event. Abigail Wheeler trailed for 12th place after touching the wall with a preliminary and final time of 2:06.46 and 2:04.58, respectively.
King, Gardiner, Pataki, and Ginnis had a strong finish in the final event for the final day of the Mizzou Invite. The Lobo team stands as one of the upper finishers in the 400-yard freestyle as they took ninth place clocking in at 3:25.88.
New Mexico’s head coach, Kunio Kono, says that he is proud of the strong performances his team gave during every single day of the meet.
A combination of challenging opponents and three days of straight competition proved to be tough for the team but coach Kono says his team handled it all well. He includes, “This weekend was a very good lesson for our younger swimmers. They saw who they will be up against and which goals to work on for when they compete in the NCAA Championships.”
Diving
The Lobo swimmers wrapped up competition for this week but the divers are not done just yet. They continued in the second day of the Wildcat Diving Invitational with the 1-meter championships.
Kayla Taylor, a native from New Mexico, competed in the springboard events and finished for 35th place after receiving a total score of 168.50 points.
The divers will continue with the platform event tomorrow which will also conclude competition at the Wildcat Diving Invitational.
UNM’s swimming and diving team will reunify in official meets again for another three-day event at the UNLV Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev. on Saturday, Dec. 13.