ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – After an extended break, which included an eight-day trip to Puerto Rico, the University of New Mexico swimming and diving team is back in action this weekend. The Lobos travel to Flagstaff, Arizona, the site of this year’s NCAA Zone E Diving Championships in March, to take on the Lumberjacks in a dual meet.
“We’ve been training pretty well,” head coach Kunio Kono said. “We just got back from an immersion training session in Puerto Rico. Both the swimmers and divers were able to go, and we had a great time there. Now we’re ready for the races. We’ve been hungry to race for a while.”
The Lobos last competed in a meet way back on Nov. 7 in San Diego when they took on both Washington State and San Diego State. UNM now has just two more dual meets, plus a diving event, to prepare for the Mountain West Championships in February. It starts with the Lumberjacks on Saturday at 11 a.m.
“Northern Arizona is very well coached,” Kono said. “They have some really good sprinters and divers. They also train on long-course meters, so we’ll have to step up to 25-meters instead of yards. It will be a slightly different pool configuration, but we’ll be ready for them.”
The Lobos will lean on swimmers like senior Shayla King and sophomore Morgan Ginnis, who both narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Olympic Trials back in December, to take down NAU, which is coming off a close loss to Colorado State last weekend. The weekend prior they lost at Arizona and defeated Oregon State.
“The Puerto Rico trip was good for team building,” Kono said. “The girls really bonded well. It was great prep for Northern Arizona and New Mexico State (next week) as we look forward to the Mountain West Championships next month.”