NEW ORLEANS, La. --- Esme Abaddi MacIntosh led a Cherry & Silver wave in the 3-meter dive as UNM went 1, 4, 5 in the competition, as UNM fell in its opening dual meet, losing 54-30 to UALR at the Mardi Gras Invitational, hosted by Tulane.
UNM takes on Tulane on Saturday morning before finishing up with North Texas Saturday afternoon.
The dual was part of an invitational featuring seven swimming events in a format where a swimmer could swim only twice, including relays, and a maximum of two athletes per team could score in a 5-3-2-1 format.
UNM swept the eight possible points in the 3-meter diving, in which all four teams had divers compete, though some did not get a full complement of dives as divers were eliminated after some rounds.
Abaddi-MacIntosh had no worries, winning with a 269.25 score. Round out the top five for UNM were Alice English in fourth place and Reed Moyer in fifth.
In the pool, the events for this dual meet were the 200 medley relay, 200 free, 200 fly, 100 IM, 200 back, 200 breast, and 200 freestyle relay. UNM had a pair of second-place finishes in the relays, with Rian Bleyendaal, Emily Ford, Sophia Corder, and Arianna Stokes finishing a 1:48.88 for second, and Stokes, Liv Hann, Bleyendaal, and Ava Schlosser barely in second in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 1:37.93.
Hann also raced in the 200 free, turning in a personal-best of 1:58.46. Also turning in a PR was Corder, who touched the pad in the 100 IM at 1:01.36.
Tomorrow morning's dual will feature eight races and the 1-meter dive, and the afternoon dual is back to seven races with a team diving competition for scoring purposes.