Air Force vs. New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, October 8. THE University of New Mexico swimming and diving team started the season strong with a win against the Air Force Falcons earlier today by a final score of 167-133.

The Lobos got off to a strong start claiming first place in the first two races of the day.

The 200-yard medley relay team composed of junior Hayley Martin, sophomores Jorgi Hobson and Stelicia Flores and freshmen Anna Lilliestrom touched the wall first and clocked a final time of 1:46.80. Sophomore returner, and school record holder in the 1,650-yard freestyle, Monica Dudley took first place in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:48.67, her sister Maria Dudley finished second in 11:05.33.

Tesse Maciejko, Taylor McGregor and Heidi Zeiger all brought in points for UNM in the 200-yard freestyle finishing third through fifth in the event.

Lindsey Morris finished second in a close and highly competitive 100-yard breaststroke. Her time of 1:06.44 was .05 seconds behind Air Force's Kim Davis who touched the wall in 1:06.39. Martin, Ashley Blanchette, and Carlie McGregor finished third, fifth and sixth in the event, respectively.

"This meet was great, it was one week earlier than it usual is so we had to get the girls ready fast and quick, but they did great," said Head Coach Tracy Ljone. "They got on the blocks and our times were extremely fast for it being October 8th, we had some great swims today."

Jorgi Hobson has perhaps one of the most impressive swims of the duel coming in first in the 100-yard butterfly; a race that she dominated from the beginning.
"Jorgi Hobson is probably two seconds faster right now than she was last year," Ljone said. "She is on fire; we're looking forward to a lot of great things from her."

Freshmen Samantha Moss reached a first place finish in the 200-yard butterfly, her final time of 2:09.35 pulled in nine points for the Lobos; New Mexico swimmers also finished first in the 50- and 100-yard free.

In the diving end of the pool, Abel Sanchez's squad dominated. Senior Ashlee Erickson claimed the top spot on both the 3-meter and 1-meter board with scores of 355.20 and 310.50 respectively. She has already qualified for NCAA Zones.

"Our girls did really well today," said diving coach Abel Sanchez. "We had two girls that were out with injuries (sophomores Melissa Bollig and Megan Harper), but we had a great start. Our freshman (Michole Timm) and our sophomore transfer (Laura Thomas) stepped it up."

"Gabby was amazing, it was a tremendous first meet, she qualified for zones already and that is awesome."

The Lobos will spend the next week preparing for their trip to Boise, Idaho where they will take on Boise State, Friday Oct. 14 and Seattle University, Saturday, Oct. 15.

"Boise is a good, tough team coming into our conference," said Ljone. "We're going to train hard the first days of the week and back off and have a good trip up to Boise."

Abel Sanchez shared the same sentiment about preparing for Boise and Seattle. "We have to get our two injured girls better," he said. "With a performance like the one we had today the rest of the team will perform well, the girls are only going to get better as the season goes along."

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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