11 Lobos Swim in Finals on Day 2 of Invitational
Las Vegas, Nev. – The University of New Mexico swimming and diving completed the second day of competition at the UNLV Invitational swim meet on Sunday. The Lobos slipped to seventh place in the standings, breaking their tie for sixth with Cal Poly after day one.
UCLA remained in first place, with Northern Arizona, UNLV, New Mexico State, Cal Baptist, Cal Poly, New Mexico, Fresno Pacific, Linfield, and Lewis & Clark in tow.
The Lobos had 11 different swimmers qualify early in the day for finals events, with four of them qualifying for two event finals.
Sophomore Layni Andrle qualified to swim in the C-Final of the 400-yard individual medley (4:42.43). She also qualified for the E-Final in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:00.59.
Freshman Maya Clise was the second Lobo to qualify and compete in two finals on the day, making that her second and third finals of the meet. She earned the right to swim in the D-Final in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:56.97 in prelims. Clise also swam in the C-Final of the 100-yard breaststroke after qualifying earlier in the day, bettering her time from prelims with a 1:05.46.
Junior Jordan Foster was the next Lobo to swim in two finals on Sunday, qualifying for the C-Final in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.74) and the D-Final in the 100-yard butterfly (58.66).
Senior Marina Olmstead was New Mexico’s other swimmer to compete in two finals in her events on Sunday, swimming in her second and third finals of the meet. She qualified in prelims for the D-Final in the 100-yard backstroke and dropped nearly a second and a half from her time earlier in the day (58.87). She did the same thing in the C-Final of the 100-yard butterfly, dropping just shy of a full second (57.46).
New Mexico had seven other swimmers swim finals-qualifying times in prelims on Sunday, starting with senior Josie Carpenter in the 400-yard individual medley. She swam her fastest time of the day in the B-Final of the event, going a 4:34.37.
Sophomore Katy McCarter qualified to swim in the C-Final of the 200-yard freestyle with her fastest time in the prelims of the event (1:54.31).
Three Lobos joined Clise in the finals of the 100-yard breaststroke. Senior Ola Tomaszek threw down a 1:04.31 in the B-Final to finish in 10th place, and sophomore Kiana Raagas (1:07.44) and freshman Amaya Oliphant (1:08.90) swam their best times of the day in the D- and E-Final, respectively. Oliphant’s time in the E-Final was over two full seconds faster than her prelim time in the morning.
Senior Maddie Deucher and freshman Asiana Lee both joined Olmstead in the finals of the 100-yard backstroke event, with Deucher having her faster time of the day in the prelims (58.55) to qualify her for the C-Final and Lee just barely bettering her time in the E-Final (1:00.46).
The remaining seven events of the meet are set to be completed on Monday in Las Vegas.