The University of New Mexico swimming and diving team ended a successful Senior Day with a 192-108 dual-meet victory over New Mexico State University on Saturday. On the way, the Lobos won 13 of the 16 events as they secured their sixth straight victory over NMSU.
"It was an awesome day to celebrate our seniors — Madi Burns, Deidra Dorough, Celine Bertrand — and that was our main priority today,” head swim coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker said in a release. “It's just an honor to really celebrate our seniors and what they've done for this program, which is a tremendous amount. They are fantastic teammates, individuals and athletes, obviously. All-around, they just had such a positive impact on our program and on the people around them. It was great to be able to send them off with a win against our rival."
The Lobos' top performer was senior Madison Burns, who won all four of her events. She secured individual victories in the 50-yard freestyle (23.59) and the 100-yard freestyle (51.85) in addition to team victories in the 200-yard medley relay (1:3.59) and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Burns wasn’t the only Lobo swimmer to sweep her events, as junior Konoha Shinada snagged two individual wins in addition to helping the previously mentioned teams win their events.
The final Lobo to sweep the events she competed in was junior Adriana Palomino, who was a member of the winning 400-yard freestyle relay team in addition to victories in the 500-yard freestyle (5:01.13) and the 1000-yard freestyle, which she won by more than 16 seconds with a time of 9:54.54.
"Overall, I thought we performed very well across the board," Tierney-Walker said. “We have two-and-a-half weeks until our conference championships so this was a great indication of details that we need to continue to fine-tune.”
Hannah Tiendas had arguably the biggest day from the dive team, as she won her first ever collegiate win in the 1-meter dive with a score of 273.13. That attempt made the NCAA Zone Cut, meaning she has qualified to compete at the meet bearing the same name, which will take place March 5 through 7 at Northern Arizona University. Tiendas also took fourth place in the 3-meter dive with a score of 273.15.
"It's beyond words how proud I am of these divers," head dive coach Julie Weddle said in a release. "They all did outstanding today and showed great improvements. I'm excited for Hannah and her first collegiate win while also qualifying for Zones in the 1-meter. She also posted a personal best in the 3-meter with a 273, just seven points short of zone qualification…This was a great day for Lobo divers and they are getting ready for conference."
The diving team will compete Feb. 2 and 3 in the Air Force Diving Invitational. Both squads will take to the pool Feb. 14 through 17 in San Antonio, Texas for the Mountain West Championships.
Cameron Goeldner is a sports beat reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s soccer and softball but also contributes content for baseball, basketball, football and track and field. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @goeldfinger.
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