Meet Results vs. Northern Colorado
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of New Mexico swimmers won 13 of 14 events Saturday morning against the visiting Northern Colorado Bears to win their dual meet 203.5-96.5. Freshman Adriana Palomino repeated her three-win day from last week, and Kaela McKee won both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events to pace UNM.
“This week we trained really hard,” UNM head coach Kunio Kono said. “A lot of girls stepped up from last week and we had a big improvement.”
The UNM swimmers’ only loss came in the 200 breaststroke by less than half a second. Other than that one blemish, the swimmers went 13-for-13 in all the other races.
Palomino’s day included the grueling back-to-back 1000- and 200-yard freestyle events, which she swept again. She also won the 500 free for the second week in a row. McKee won the 100-yard back by almost two seconds, touching the wall in 56.95. In the 200 she won with a time of 2:04.58.
“Going into the 100 back I knew it was going to be a close race with both my own teammates and UNC,” she said. “I just tried to swim as fast as I could. In the 200 back, our team is really strong. We have a lot of strong backstrokers. My main focus in that was getting out fast.”
The Lobo divers did not have as strong a day as their swimmer teammates, but still put forth a solid effort. Freshman Allyson Concepcion finished second in the 1-meter with 235.95 points and third in the 3-meter with 239.63. Maddie Horner scored 228.98 and 223.35 in those events, respectively.
UNM especially dominated in the freestyle events. In addition to Palomino’s three wins, the Lobos took the top three spots in both the 50 and 100 free. The 50 saw Madi Burns (24.19), Amelie Braul (24.24) and Shayla King (24.37) record the top three times. Braul (53.77) and King (54.11) also finished two-three in the 100, but it was Morgan Ginnis who claimed the win in 52.69.
Abigail Wheeler (57.02) and Emily McGill (2:10.05) won the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard IM, respectively. The meet finished with the Lobos taking the top two spots in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
UNM travels next week for a tri-meet at San Diego State against the Aztecs and Washington State.