NEW ORLEANS, La. --- It's Carnival Season in New Orleans, and with everything just a little different in the Crescent City, why wouldn't a four-team collegiate swim meet be? That's the case, as the Lobos will face three Division I opponents in the Mardi Gras Invitational, hosted by Tulane University, on Friday and Saturday, January 16 and 17.
The Lobos will be joined by host Tulane, along with UALR (formerly Arkansas-Little Rock) and UNT (formerly North Texas).
Usually, a four-team meet in an invitational format will see heats run and points spread from first to 24th, or, in a quad-meet format, all teams race together and then times are separated to get scores against each opponent. For the Mardi Gras Invitational, a unique scoring format will be used, with each team dueling in separate, shorter sessions.
To open, with just swimming events, New Mexico faces UALR at 3:40 pm Mountain Time on Friday, Tulane at 8:50 am Mountain Time on Saturday, and then UNM will go against UNT at 2:10 pm. Each swimming session is scheduled for around 60 minutes, and the events will vary across matches, with seven races on Friday and Saturday nights and eight races on Saturday morning matches.
With the shortened program comes a unique 5-3-2-1 scoring system, with a maximum of two scorers per team, and swimmers may race in only two events, including relays, per match.
Diving will take place with the 3-meter at 5:45 on Friday, the 1-meter at 11 am on Saturday, and a team diving event at 12:30 pm on Saturday.
For diving, the same 5-3-2-1 scoring will hold, with the matches the same as swimming (so UNM vs. UALR Friday, Tulane, and then UNT on Saturday).
Overall, the team with the most combined points from all three meets will be declared the Mardi Gras Invitational winner.
The meet is the final one before UNM's only home meet of the year, next Saturday at 11 am against Northern Arizona, where UNM will honor three Lobos participating for the final time at home.