FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – Led by senior Shayla King, the University of New Mexico swim team is putting on a solid showing at the U.S. Winter Nationals so far. King posted a time of 26.20 in the 50 meter freestyle, falling just .01 seconds shy of making the cut for the Olympic Trials next summer.
“We’ve been having great times in some time trials,” UNM head coach Kunio Kono said. “The girls are swimming very well. Shayla King missed out by just one one-hundredth of a second for the Olympic cut. She has one more chance to make it on Saturday.”
Morgan Ginnis also had a good time in the 50 free, touching the wall in 26.39, which was virtually identical to her heat time of 26.37.
“Morgan was also really close, coming in just .18 seconds away from the Olympic Trial time,” Kono said. “All of the girls are swimming tough and competing very hard and are close to the times they need.”
Senior Kristin Walker, meanwhile, placed second the 100 meter backstroke with a time of 1:12.54, which is just over a second away from the cut time in that event. Freshman Adriana Palomino missed out on qualifying in the 200 and 400 freestyles by a couple seconds in each race. Fellow freshman Mareike Foester was one of just two racers in the 200 breaststroke, and she posted a time of 2:40.09. Finally, junior Abigail Wheeler’s time of 1:03.97 in the 100 butterfly was less than a second and a half away from qualification.
Saturday offers one last chance for the Lobos to improve their times in their efforts to qualify for the Olympic Trials. Full results from the first two days of competition can be found here.