Lobos Remain in 6th After Day 2 of Invitational
Houston, Texas – The University of New Mexico still sits in 6th place out of six teams after the second day of the Phil Hansel Invitational swim meet in Houston, Texas. Friday’s events saw the Lobos set several more season-best times and improve their team score to 371.5 through 20 events.
Houston remained in the lead after day two with 1196.5 points. They are followed in the standings by Rice, then Air Force, Tulane, North Texas, and New Mexico.
Just like Thursday, the day started with prelims for the day’s five events, with some swimmers qualifying to return later in the day for finals.
In the 400-yard individual medley prelims, three Lobos qualified to return for finals. Senior Josie Carpenter and sophomore Layni Andrle, who would set new season-best times later on in the day, and sophomore Caitlyn Beery, who recorded a season-best 4:39.27, all qualified. Carpenter posted a season-best 4:30.36 in the finals and Andrle went a 4:35.83 to drop her season-best time as well.
Senior Marina Olmstead recorded her new fastest time of the season in the 100-yard butterfly to qualify for finals later that night. Junior Jordan Foster and junior Ashley Sterchele both qualified to return for finals in the event and set new season-bests in the event, going 56.74 and 58.28, respectively.
Three Lobos qualified to return for finals in the 200-yard freestyle, with two of them setting new season-bests in the prelims. Sophomore Brynn Quintana (1:53.97) and Paige Lyons (1:56.77) set new fastest times for the season in the prelims for the event. Sophomore Katy McCarter placed 12th in the finals for the event, posting a new season-best 1:51.29 in the event.
New Mexico had five different swimmers qualify to return for finals in the 100-yard breaststroke. Senior Ola Tomaszek not only qualified to return, but she set a new personal best in the prelims and then broke that personal best for another one in the finals. She placed 5th in the event with a 1:03.12. Freshman Eloise Fisher (1:05.30) and Foster (1:05.63) both set new season-bests in the prelims as they qualified for finals in the event. Sophomore Kiana Raagas (1:06.28) and freshman Amaya Oliphant (1:07.82) both qualified to return for finals in the event and recorded those season-best times in the finals.
Senior Maddie Deucher and Olmstead both went fast enough in the prelims of the 100-yard backstroke to return for finals later in the day as well. Not only did they both race later in the day, but they both set new season-best times in the event, going 58.05 and 56.85, respectively.
Sophomore Alex Robertson placed 10th in the 3-meter diving on Friday, scoring 254.90 points. Junior Kristen Hepfer also had a good day off the 3-meter board, scoring 245.85 points to put her in 14th place in the event.
Saturday is the final day of the Phil Hansel Invitational. The finals for every event can be streamed at http://uhcougars.com/watch.