Swimming & Diving Heads to Credit Union 1 MW Championships

HOUSTON, Texas — The University of New Mexico swimming and diving program heads to the Credit Union 1 Mountain West Championships at a venue it knows quite well as the University of Houston will host the event Wednesday through Saturday, February 19-22.

The Lobos competed at Houston earlier this year at the Phil Hansell Invitational, a meet where UNM set a variety of season-bests that stood for the bulk of the year.  Now UNM will battle in a 10-team format against Air Force, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Washington State and Wyoming.  The Aztecs have won five of the last six titles and three straight, with only UNLV in 2021 breaking the string.

For UNM, Isabella Gomez and Arianna Stokes are the top Lobo contenders for finals honors, with Gomez having top eight qualifying scores in all three diving events, the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform.  On the swim side, Stokes has a finals qualifying time in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events. Several other Lobos are close and will look for big meets to get into the chmapionships finals.  That includes Alice English who had two finals appearances last year and is right on the cusp with her season marks.  Katy McCarter certainly can qualify as she is within striking distance as is Ellie Broughton in several distance events.

Last year the Lobos scored 417 points, its most since the 2019 championships, and UNM will look to better that total for a third straight season.  The addition of a potential title winning team to the league in Washington State makes that a challenge, but UNM has a more experienced squad that should be able to score in most events, and  UNM should net more than the one championship final appearance it had last year.

It’s all apart of the growth for UNM in the second season under coach Naya Higashijima as she rbuilds the program back after the stoppage and season cancellation from the 2020-21 COVID year.

NOTES: UNM’s last individual conference champion came in 2019 when Adriana Palomino won the 1,650 freestyle … UNM’s last champion in a diving event was in 2014 when En-tien Huang won the platform.