Lobos Finish 7th at UNLV Invitational
Las Vegas, Nev. – The University of New Mexico swimming and diving program concluded their appearance at the UNLV Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev. on Monday, finishing in seventh place out of ten teams. The Lobos had 13 swimmers compete in finals of their respective events on Monday, with three of them swimming twice.
The final standings were as follows: UCLA in first, followed by Northern Arizona, UNLV, New Mexico State, Cal Baptist, Cal Poly, New Mexico, Fresno Pacific, Linfield, and Lewis & Clark.
Three Lobos competed in multiple finals of their events on Monday. Freshman Maya Clise swam in the 1650-yard freestyle (18:41.85) and then qualified for the B-Final in the 200-yard breaststroke with her best time of the day in the event (2:23.06). Clise led New Mexico in the number of finals swam this weekend with five.
Sophomores Katy McCarter and Brynn Quintana were the other two Lobos to swim in two event finals on Monday. McCarter posted a 59.65 in the C-Final of the 100-yard individual medley and a 51.70 in the B-Final of the 100-yard freestyle. Quintana competed in the 1650-yard freestyle (18:06.64) and joined McCarter in the finals of the 100-yard freestyle, recording her best time of the day in prelims (54.29) and qualifying for the E-Final.
Senior Ola Tomaszek recorded New Mexico’s best place-finish of the weekend in the 200-yard breaststroke on Monday. She was the only Lobo to swim in an A-Final during the invitational, and she posted a seventh-place 2:20.95.
Sophomore Kiana Raagas (2:23.70) and freshman Amaya Oliphant (2:29.91) were the third and fourth Lobos competing in the 200-yard breaststroke – joining Tomaszek and Clise – swimming in the B- and C-Finals, respectively.
Two more Lobos swam alongside Quintana and Clise in the 1650-yard freestyle event on Monday, as senior Josie Carpenter (17:50.77) took 15th place and sophomore Marin Wilson (18:22.86) competed as well.
New Mexico had four swimmers qualify to swim in the 100-yard individual medley finals. Junior Jordan Foster (58.92) swam in the B-Final, McCarter swam in the C-Final, freshman Asiana Lee (1:02.13) swam in the D-Final, and sophomore Layni Andrle (1:01.62) swam in the E-Final. Andrle dropped almost a full two seconds from her prelim time to her final time.
Senior Maddie Deucher swam in the C-Final of the 200-yard backstroke event on Monday, posting her best time of the day of 2:05.34.
Junior Ashley Sterchele qualified to swim in the B-Final of the 200-yard butterfly with a 2:09.73 time in the prelims of the event.
The next time the Lobos will be in action will be at Nevada on January 21st for a Mountain West Conference dual meet. The start time for that meet is TBA with updates to come.