Lobos Fall to Lumberjacks
Albuquerque, N.M. – The Lobos’ swimming and diving team fell to Northern Arizona on Friday by a score of 172-120. New Mexico trailed from the get-go and was never able to recover. The Lumberjacks won each of the first three events of the meet and took a commanding lead that they never surrendered.
While the meet didn’t go exactly as planned for the Lobos, there were some bright spots. The team won six events, including an event where they took first and second place and two events where they finished in each of the first three places.
New Mexico’s first win of the day came in the 100-yard backstroke, where senior Marina Olmstead (1:00.28) narrowly out-touched the top Lumberjack competitor by just one tenth of a second. The Lobos’ next victory was in the 50-yard freestyle courtesy of sophomore Katy McCarter’s (24.11) second victory of the season in the event. McCarter also collected the next win for the team in the 100-yard freestyle (52.44), her second in that event as well.
The Lobos began to pick up some steam towards the end of the meet. In their next two event wins, they took first, second, and third place. First was the 100-yard butterfly, where Olmstead (1:00.48), sophomore Layni Andrle (1:01.18), and junior Ashley Sterchele (1:02.86) did the job for the Lobos. Next was the 400-yard individual medley, in which Andrle (4:49.28), senior Josie Carpenter (4:50.95), and sophomore Caitlin Beery (4:55.55) were the top three finishers.
New Mexico also dominated in the final race of the meet, the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team finished in both first and second place, giving them a very positive note to end on. McCarter, Olmstead, sophomore Brynn Quintana, and junior Jordan Foster won the race as the Lobos’ “A Relay” (1:38.24) and sophomore Paige Lyons, Sterchele, freshman Maya Clise, and senior Grace Carey came in second on the team’s “B Relay” (1:43.83).
Junior Kristen Hepfer was the Lobos’ top finisher in the 1-meter diving event, the only diving event of the day. She placed fourth with a score of 243.45.
Up next for the Lobos will be an appearance in the Phil Hansel Invitational meet, which is a three-day meet starting on Nov. 17th. The meet will be in Houston, Texas, and is expected to last all day on each of the three days.