SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Lobos find themselves in seventh place after accumulating a team score of 47 points at the conclusion of day one at the 2015 Mountain West Swimming and Diving Championships
Boise State satisfies the preseason poll so far as they sit at the top of the team rankings with 105 points. Mountain West affiliates finished in second through sixth places in the following order: SDSU (98 points), Nevada (82 points), Wyoming (71 points), CSU (68 points) and UNLV (60 points).
New Mexico tallied a score above Air Force who finished for eighth place (39 points), Fresno State for ninth place (38 points) and San Jose State for 10th place (15 points).
Day one of the conference championships consisted of three events: the 200-yard medley relay, the 1-meter springboard and the 800-yard freestyle relay.
UNM’s team of Kaela McKee, Kristin Walker, Abigail Wheeler and Morgan Ginnis brought in the first finish of the week and the highest of the day as they took sixth place in the 200-yard medley relay with a relay A time of 1:40.04.
Ginnis anchored for the Lobos and swam her leg at 22.13 – the fastest split in the event in school history. McKee, Walker and Wheeler brought in 25.48, 27.94 and 24.29 splits, respectively.
One-meter diving counted as event two where freshman Rachel Colman represented New Mexico in the B-finals and placed 14th with 218.05 points. She moved up from her preliminary standings of 227.70 points for 15th place.
Caitlin Gardiner, Anna Lengyel, Celine Bertrand and Fanni Pataki rounded up the final race of the day. The team took ninth place after clocking in a relay A time at 7:27.00.
Head Coach Kunio Kono reflects on the first of three remaining rigorous days of competition, “We had some ups and downs. Rachel Colman stepped up and had a great first conference championships competition and placed 14th.”
“We raced tough and well tonight. All of our swimmers and divers are looking great and are ready for the next three days.”
Day two will commence with the 500-yard freestyle preliminary round tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.
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