UNM Edged Out by Nevada in Final Event, 156-144
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico women’s swimming and diving team fell to Mountain West opponent Nevada on Saturday in the final home meet of the season by the score of 156-144.
It was a hard-fought loss for the Lobos after taking the early lead on the day and maintaining it through 14 events. Going into the last event of the dual, the 400-yard freestyle relay, UNM trailed Nevada by just three points after the Wolf Pack gained the 143-140 advantage after the 400-yard IM.
With 11 critical points going to the winner of the relay, the final event came down to 0.73 seconds separating first- and second-place, with Nevada’s A relay team, anchored by Andressa Cholodovskis, edging out New Mexico’s A relay team, anchored by Adriana Palomino, for the event win and the meet win.
The Lobos won the first four events on the day, including the 1-meter dive, before the Wolf Pack responded with the next three event wins.
Despite the loss, the Lobos had 21 top-three finishes, with nine first-place finishes.
Palomino led the Lobos with three wins on the day, earning back-to-back wins in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:23.83) and the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.14), and later in the 500-yard freestyle (5:02.20) .
Senior Konoha Shinada helped the 200-medley relay team, comprised of junior Breanna Wiercinski along with freshmen Hedda Øritsland and Katie Pollock, win with a final time of 1:43.46 to open the dual. Also, senior Carol De Groote Tavares earned the victory in the 200-yard backstroke after finishing the race in 2:05.09.
Junior Natasha Dark led the UNM divers with top marks in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. In the first event, Dark set a career high with a score of 292.95, which not only allowed her to win the 1-meter dive, her first 1-meter diving victory of the season, but it also qualified her for zones. After just missing the qualifying diving standard in the tri-meet at Air Force by 0.10 points, Dark secured her zones qualifying mark in the 3-meter dive, scoring 283.73 for the third-place result and her second qualifying mark of the day.
Øritsland finished the day with two individual wins in the 50-yard freestyle and in the 100-yard freestyle touching the wall at 23.82 and 51.11, respectively. Sophomore Matea Sumajstorcic grabbed UNM’s final win of the meet in the 400-yard IM with a final time of 4:30.65.
The Lobos next meet will be in Minneapolis, Minn. for the Mountain West Championships on Feb. 20-23, with start times varying based on the day. Check golobos.com for times and updates.
Be sure to follow UNM Women’s Swimming and Diving on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date throughout the season.