STOCKTON, Calif.— The University of New Mexico’s swimming and diving team finished its first day of competition at the Pacific Invitational in Stockton, Calif., sitting in second with 401 points. The Lobos trail just 4.5 points behind fellow Mountain West school, Nevada-Reno.
There were nine Lobos that finished in the top-three, highlighted by one Lobo that finished on top of the leaderboard.
Freshman Hedda Øritsland took home the win for the Lobos in the 50-yard freestyle with 23.63, marking not only her first win with the Lobos in her first collegiate race, but also the first win of the season for UNM. The day was bookended with relays in which the Lobos took second in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 400- yard freestyle relay with times of 1:45.52 and 3:32.36, respectively, to add 34 points to the team total in each event. The group that took second in the 200-yard medley relay was comprised of Carol De Groote Tavares, Asami Terada, Konoha Shinada, and Øritsland. The team that helped place second in the 400-yard freestyle relay was Katie Pollock, Øritsland, De Groote Tavares, and Breanna Wiercinski. The “B” 200-yard medley relay group of Emily Huffer, Pollock, Klara Farkas and Wiercinski finished less than two seconds behind the runner-up relay team at 1:47.46 to finish third and give UNM a total of 66 points in the event. The second 400-yard freestyle relay team of Sumajstorcic, Grace Carey, Bryndis Bolladottir and Farkas swam 3:37.30 to place fourth, earning 30 team points.
Individually, several UNM swimmers produced runner-up finishes on the evening. Farkas swam the 200-yard freestyle in 1:51.51 for a runner-up result, earning 17 points, and Matea Sumajstorcic completed the 400-yard IM in 4:27.02 and the 200-yard butterfly in 2:06.31 to place second in both events.
In the 200-yard butterfly the Lobos had the second, third and fourth top-finishers in Sumajstorcic, Farkas (2:06.66) and freshman Priscila De la Pena (2:07.37), producing 48 team points. Add in Huffer’s sixth-place finish (2:07.99) for 13 points, Jordan Hartley’s 11th-place result (2:11.36) for six points and Raine Gavino’s two points from a 15th-place finish of 2:16.79 and UNM had 69 points in that one event alone.
Shinada was the top-finisher for the Lobos in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 57.93, placing her third amongst all swimmers, and De Groote Tavares rounded out the top-five with a time of 58.52.
The Lobos will resume competition tomorrow at 10 a.m. MT at the Pacific Invitational. Below is the schedule for tomorrow’s events.
Saturday, October 14th at 10 a.m. MT
400- yard medley relay
500- yard freestyle
200- yard backstroke
100- yard freestyle
200- yard breaststroke
100- yard freestyle
200- yard IM
200- yard freestyle relay
1650- yard freestyle
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