New Mexico State Women Cruise Past New Mexico, Utah Tech To Sweep Weekend
The Aggies cruised past New Mexico and Utah Tech, prevailing by scores of 203-87 and 170-90 on Saturday after winning by similar margins on Friday. Current photo via Matthew Knope
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – On Saturday, NM State Swimming & Diving rounded out its first weekend of the 2025-26 regular season. The Aggies once again cruised past New Mexico and Utah Tech, prevailing by scores of 203-87 and 170-90, respectively. The Crimson & White carried their success over from day one of the campaign after similar margins of victory on Friday.
Head Coach Rick Pratt, on the win: “This weekend was a lot of fun, and we had many strong performances across the board. It was a great experience to have a bunch of races and to see where we are headed into our next six weeks of training. We’re motivated, we’re excited for the strength of our team and ready to keep pushing forward. We have got to stay healthy and diligent over the next couple months for overall success in February. Overall, this was a very successful weekend.”
The Aggies competed in 16 events on Saturday, including the 1m and 3m dive. In its 16 chances, NM State picked up a first-place finish 14 times, occupying 28 of the 48 available podium spots.
Katie Rink dominated in her signature, the 1000 free. The senior finished with a time of 10:30.60, while Estel Galo’s 11:04.56 posting was good for third place.
Dreamer Kowatch (1:56.08) and Natalia Florian (1:57.18) then picked up a 2-3 finish in the 200 free before Dobbins (58.04) and Masselink (58.62) went 1-3 in the 100 back.
Kodi Wiman’s 1:04.73 time in the 100 breast solidified gold, just ahead of her teammate Faye McDonagh’s bronze showing of 1:06.11.
The 200 fly belonged to NM State, as four of the top five swimmers to touch the wall were Aggies. Galo clocked in at 2:09.66, with freshman Willow Messner just over a second behind in third place, ahead of Ellen Osthelder and Riley Crespo in fourth and fifth.
In the fastest race of the day, Dijana Mazumdar set herself apart with a first-place time of 24.16 in the 50 free. The Australian also claimed gold in the 100 free (51.65), with fellow countrywoman Emily Dobbins (53.16) clinching silver.
Thea Masselink and Naomi Slee shortly followed up with their own 1-2 showing of Aggie Canadians atop the 200 back podium, clocking in at 2:07.09 and 2:07.87, respectively.
Wiman’s 200 breast showing of 2:20.63 was nearly a full second ahead of the pack, with Arleen Rumbaum also grabbing her side points courtesy of a third-place 2:24.06 mark.
In the 500 free, Katie Rink reigned supreme yet again, taking nine seconds to soak in her victory (5:10.34) before another swimmer touched the wall. The first to do so was new teammate Natalia Florian (5:19.17), narrowly snatching second from Utah Tech’s Rachel Maki by 27 hundredths of a second.
Fellow freshman Willow Messner nearly picked up the first race win of her young career in the 100 fly. Messner’s 57.36 showing was one tenth of a second behind McDonagh, granting NM State yet another top-two outcome.
McDonagh returned to the podium for a 1-2 finish in the following event, but was just behind Kodi Wiman in the 200 IM. The Canadian came in with a time of 2:09.46 to pace the pool in the day’s penultimate swim.
The 400 free relay wrapped up the afternoon, as Head Coach Rick Pratt sent out Dobbins, Mazumdar, Slee and Rink for his A grouping. The quartet finished in 3:29.85, just ahead of Utah Tech’s best performance for another Aggie victory.
Meanwhile, in the diving events, the hosts’ only competition was New Mexico. Mira Tinani headlined the 1m crop with a score of 246.30. Behind the Canadian was three Lobos before Peytton Moore’s fifth-place score of 218.63. Addison Pastiak (215.93) and Megan Ono (197.63) rounded out the Aggie performance.
On the 3m boards, Moore led her club with a 233.25 mark. The second-year Aggie collected a third-place finish with the score, behind two Lobos. Mira Tinani (228.00) came in fourth place, with Pastiak and Ono scoring 206.70 and 192.00, respectively.
UP NEXT
The Aggies will return to action in a week, heading west for the MPSF Open Water Championships. The meet will be held on Saturday, Oct. 18, from Marine Stadium along the Pacific coast of Long Beach, Calif.
Courtesy: New Mexico Athletics
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Alice English took the 3-meter title with a 255.98 score, and teammate Esme Abbadi-Macintosh was second with a 235.95 to highlight UNM’s opening dual of the season, a double dual in Las Cruces against New Mexico State and Utah Tech.
The Aggies defeated the Lobos, 203-87, and Utah Tech beat New Mexico, 210-82. The scores were based on two relays, two dives, and 12 individual races.
English had the best dive in rounds two and five, and it was that fifth dive, an inward 2 ½ somersault tuck, that scored a 50.63, which pretty much clinched the win for her. She outdistanced Abbadi-Macintosh in her first Lobo meet after transferring from UALR. Abbadi-Macintosh was paced by a 48.60 in her third dive, the high mark among all competitors.
Among the swimming events, freshman Mollie Gorman had a solid fourth-place showing in the 200-yard breaststroke, turning in a 2:26.26. Another freshman, Liv Hann, had a fifth-place showing in the 50-free with a 24.71. In a fun twist, English earned her first collegiate swimming credit in the event, coming in 12th, along with diving teammate Reed Moyer.
While Moyer and English had fun there, Moyer certainly enjoyed her weekend, turning in PRs in both the 1-meter and the 3-meter.
Other top-5 finishes for UNM came from Emily Ford in the 100-yard breaststroke and Kaylah Yazzie in the 100-yard backstroke. Erin Quirsfeld had a fifth-place finish as well in the 1,000-yard free.
The Lobos return to the pool on November 19 for the three-day Phil Hansel Invitational in Houston.
Courtesy: Utah Tech Athletics
Utah Tech came away with a split of its weekend tri-meet against both New Mexico State and New Mexico on Saturday afternoon at the NM State Swimming and Diving Complex.
The Trailblazers outscored the Lobos by a 210-82 count in their head-to-head dual, but came up short of a Saturday sweep as the host Aggies defeated the Blazers, 170-90.
Utah Tech collected two event victories on the day, beginning in the 200-yard free, where Natalia Zmierczak touched the wall first with a season-best time of 1:55.48.
That runner-up result was one of seven that Utah Tech would come away with on Saturday.
Mallory accounted for two of the individual second-place showings, which came in the 1,000 free (10:32.49) and the 200 breast (2:21.56).
In addition, Makaela Perea placed second in the 100 back (58.24), as did Patterson in the 100 breast (1:06.07). Meanwhile Kate Reichner turned the trick in the 200 fly (2:10.35), and Henry followed suit in the 50 free (24.33).
Utah Tech will send several swimmers to compete at the MPSF Open Water Championships next Saturday, Oct. 18, in Long Beach, Calif.
