ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The University of New Mexico swimming and diving team returns to the pool this Friday to start its 2018-19 season with plenty of new faces and expectations.
The Lobos have eight regular season meets before they enter conference and postseason competition, including just two home meets.
“We are excited for our schedule this year,” said head diving coach Julie Weddle. “We are competing against some great teams and they will be tough but definitely make us stronger.”
UNM opens the season at the University of the Pacific on Oct. 12 and 13 with the Pacific Invitational before hosting Northern Arizona on Friday, Oct. 26 at the Seidler Natatorium for its home debut.
November and December only feature one meet in each month for the Lobos. In November, the Lobos travel to Houston for the Phill Hansel Invitational that spans from Friday, Nov. 16 to Sunday, Nov. 18. New Mexico then will compete in a tri-meet with Air Force and Colorado State on Dec. 1.
In the new year, UNM travels to Pepperdine on Jan. 5, and two weeks later, to Las Cruces to compete against New Mexico State on Jan. 19.
The last regular season meet is a home meet on Feb. 2 against the Nevada Wolf Pack.
At the end of February is the Mountain West Championships in Minneapolis, Minn., taking place from Wednesday, Feb. 20 to Saturday the 23rd.
The Lobo divers continue postseason competition at the NCAA Diving Zone in Flagstaff, Ariz., a three-day event that starts on Monday, March 11 and goes through Thursday. Last season, the Lobos were represented by Allyson Concepcion, Natasha Dark and Hannah Tiendas. This season, the divers hope to include the two newcomers in freshmen Daphne Scheck and Jocelyn Gallais and have all five members represented.
New Mexico will be aided by the experience and exposure to success of its returners, including five seniors.
Of the 12 returners, five are seniors (Concepcion, Carol De Groote Tavares, Emily Huffer, Adriana Palomino and Konoha Shinada), three are juniors (Breanna Wiercinski, Natasha Dark and Asami Terada) and four are sophomores (Klara Farkas, Matea Sumajstorcic, Hannah Tiendas and Brooke Zukowski).
The Lobos return six student-athletes who earned all-conference last year in Concepcion, Palomino, Shinada, Huffer, Sumajstorcic and Farkas, as well as four swimmers and one relay team who broke school records in 2017-18.
Four of those records fell at the Mountain West Championships. Palomino set a school-record in the 1650-yard freestyle, posting a time of 16:22.34; Sumajstorcic set a school-record in the 400-yard individual medley after racing to a time of 4:19.33, and Huffer earned her record in the 200-yard butterfly preliminaries, posting a time of 1:58.30. The relay team of Palomino, Huffer, Sumajstorcic and Farkas established a new record in the 800-yard freestyle relay, recording a time of 7:12.43 to set the mark.
Earlier in the season, Shinada set a school record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.45 at the Phill Hansel Invitational in Houston.
Throughout her career in the Cherry and Silver, Palomino holds five school records- four individual and one as a member of a relay.
Palomino earned additional recognition by the Mountain West Conference last season as the Tempe, Ariz., native was named Mountain West Swimmer of the Week twice.
However, the Lobos’ roster will be heavily comprised of youth, as almost half of the roster is just months into their collegiate careers. In total, there are 11 freshmen on the 2018-19 roster that although new to the system and collegiate swimming, will have ample opportunity to compete.
“Our freshmen are top notch; they do not hold anything back,” said Weddle. “They are learning from our upperclassman, but they are also bringing things to the table for our upperclassman.”
Besides the composition of classes, there is also a distinct diversity of student-athletes represented on the roster.
Ten swimmers and divers call a country besides the United States home, with two each from Norway and Japan, and one from Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Iceland, Croatia and the Philippines.
Only two are local in Wiercinski and Dark, with the remaining hailing from Pennsylvania, Texas, Montana, Colorado, Nevada, New York, Washington, Virginia, Arizona and California.
Regardless of the hometown or year in school, the Lobos’ end goal will be to build cohesion and momentum throughout the meets to ultimately be competitive at the MW Championships and to be competing at the end of March at the NCAAs.
“Our girls just want to do their very best. They want to start the season off strong and keep improving from there.”