After months of preparation, the Lobos are now ready to dive into championship mode.
The UNM women’s swimming and diving team started the 2016 Mountain West Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship in College Station, Texas on Wednesday and will continue through Saturday.
The favorites to win the championship are Boise State and Nevada; both teams sit at the top of the pre-championship coaches’ poll with three first place votes and 73 points each.
With 31 points, the Lobos are currently ranked seventh out of the 10 teams listed. But although UNM might be seen as one of the underdogs, head coach Kunio Kono said he thinks his team is in good shape.
“We are excited about this,” Kono said. “We’ll see what we can do competing against big teams. We’ll do our best. Of course we can’t control the other teams, but we can control ours.”
The 200-yard butterfly event might be one where the Lobos can be competitive. The MW Event Notes list Lobo freshman Emily Huffer as the second fastest swimmer in this event with a time of 2:00.22.
“I don’t even know what to expect from her for the next few days,” Kono said. “She keeps getting better and better and I can’t want to see what happens. I’m excited to see what she can do.”
The 50-yard freestyle is expected to be a particularly competitive event. Six of the athletes competing got NCAA “B” cut times this season. The “A” and “B” cuts refer to time standards swimmers need to achieve to determine who will qualify for the NCAA Championship meet.
“This event is going to be tough but I think we have a chance,” Kono said. “Morgan Ginnis has been doing very well and she is going to be a contender.”
The sophomore might be the Lobos’ go-to sprinter. At the Winter Nationals in December, Ginnis posted a time of 26.22 in the 50-meter event. If her time had been .03 seconds faster, she would have made the cut for the US Olympic trials.
Kono said the MW conference has very good sprinters, but that distance will also be important. He says freshman Adriana Palomino will help the Lobos catch everyone by surprise. During her first year at UNM, Palomino won 13 individual races in seven competitions.
“I think she is going to get a top-5 result, maybe even top 3. They won’t see it coming,” Kono said.
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When it comes to diving, freshman Allyson Concepcion is one to look out for. She made the NCAA Zone cut in the 1-meter at Northern Arizona on Jan. 23 with a score of 284.33. The standard for the 1-meter is 265 points.
A week later, she made the cut in both the 1- and 3-meter during a meet at home against New Mexico State. She scored 273.53 in the 1-meter and 280.2 in the 3-meter. The standard for the 3-meter is 280 points.
Kono says that every athlete in his team has worked very hard this season and that even though the championship is just beginning, he’s already proud of the Lobos.
“It’s a young team. But the girls work really hard and it’s amazing to see how much they’ve already accomplished,” he said. “For the next few days, we are just going to go out there and do our best.”
Isabel Gonzalez is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @cisabelg.
