Benkova Picks Up Best Finish at MW Championships

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Laura Benkova turned in a 12th place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, narrowly missing a trip to the A Finals, highlighting a busy evening at the Mountain West Swimming and Diving Championships, held on the campus of Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.

Overall, UNM remained ninth in the nine team event with 276.5 points, and they now trail eighth place San Jose State 370.5 to 276.5.  San Diego State leads the championships after three days 1082.5 to 889.5 over Nevada.  UNLV, Wyoming, Colorado State, Fresno State and Air Force are third through seventh.

Benkova’s 12th finish is UNM’s best individual finish of the meet, and it scored UNM 15 points for the team.  She qualified fourth in the B Final, missing the A Final by 0.38 seconds.  She swam a 1:50.41 in the prelims and amazingly turned in that exact time in the B Final, finishing fourth in the heat.  She teamed with Katy McCarter, who tied for 18th overall, scoring 6.5 points in the event.

UNM picked up 44 points in the 200-yard freestyle relay as Borka Tomanova, McCarter, Marina Olmstead and Olivia Bishop swam in 1:33.69, just missing seventh place but topping San Jose State for eighth place.

Mari Aoki turned in her second straight 16th place finish with a 4:28.47 in the 400 IM, and Caitlyn Beery was 24th as they scored 11 and one point respectively.

Tomanova was 19th in the 100 butterfly for six points, UNM’s only qualifier there.  Jordan Foster was 14th for 13 points in the 100-yard breaststroke and Tomanova came back in the 100-yard backstroke to win the C Final and score nine points with a 17th place finish, and Maddie Deucher finished sixth in that same race and 22nd overall for three points.

The championships conclude Saturday.