Swimming & Diving Host NMSU in Weekend Dual
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Lobo swimming and diving team has slowly been building up to this one. The Lobos will take on New Mexico State on Friday and Saturday in a two-day dual meet at Seidler Natatorium. The first half of the meet will begin with diving prelims at 4:15 pm on Friday and the swimming events at 5 pm. The second half will start Saturday with diving at 11:15 am and swimming at noon.
The Lobos, who did not compete in 2020-21, opened with a relay meet to open the 2021-22 season. After UNM’s Cherry/Silver exhibition, the team traveled to face a Division II opponent in its first full meet, taking on CSU Pueblo, winning 199-92. Now, the Lobos will face off against a Division I opponent, and it’s just their biggest rival.
The Friday schedule will begin with the 1-meter diving prelims. There will be eight swimming events contested on Friday; the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, the 200-yard Individual Medley, the 500-yard freestyle, the 100-yard Breaststroke, the 200-yard Backstroke, the 100-yard Freestyle, the 200-yard Butterfly and the 400-yard Medley Relay. The finals of the 1-meter dive will occur in between the swimming events.
On Saturday, the day will start with the 3-meter prelims. The nine swimming events on Saturday will be the 200-yard Medley Relay, the 1000-yard freestyle, the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard Backstroke, the 200-yard Breaststroke, the 100-yard Fly, the 200-yard Freestyle, the 400-yard Individual Medley and the 400-yard Freestyle Relay. The 3-meter diving finals will also be contested during the swimming portion of the meet.
The Lobos have won nine straight over the Aggies, including the last meeting. That was a 194-106 victory by the Lobos in Albuquerque on the teams’ 2019-20 senior night. That’s the only meeting between the two programs in the Keegan Ingelido era. For NMSU, it is 0-1 with just one official dual meet contested this season, losing 167-131 to Northern Colorado in Las Cruces. The team did finish eighth out of 22 teams in the CSCAA Open Water tournament to open the season.
UNM was led in its last meet by Mari Aoki, Marina Olmstead and Laura Benkova, who each won two individual races. Benkova will use this meet as a tune-up of sorts for the European Championships next week that she has qualified for. Against CSU Pueblo, Aoki won 200-yard backstroke and the 400-yard individual medley. Olmstead won both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly and Benkova won the 200 and 500-yard freestyles.