HOUSTON, Texas – The final day of the UH Phil Hansel Invitational wrapped up on Sunday after the New Mexico State Aggies completed six events. These events included the 1650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
At the end of the three day competition, head coach
Rick Pratt commented on the event saying, "This was a great experience for our team. With more training and a full taper it should make for some exciting things at the WAC championship. Today we finished with many great swims. Three of our milers swam personal bests today, which was inspiring.
Alix Knagg swam an energizing 200-back, under 2 minutes, and the highlight of the night was
Lauren Wood's 2nd place finish in the 200-breast with an NCAA B cut. Lauren was swimming tight all weekend and finally let go for a great swim tonight. Overall we're in a great place, I'm proud of our team and excited for the second half of the season."
NM State had four swimmers compete in the 1650-yard freestyle, led by
Picabo Bender with a time of 17:03.21. Then coming in back-to-back was Nattie French at 17:13.04 and Lilly Araujo posting a time of 17:18.40. Rounding out the Aggies in this event was freshman,
Grace Laporte who came in at 17:47.95.
The 200-yard backstroke featured an impressive ninth place finish for
Alix Knagg with a time of 1:59.66. Johanna Pettersson followed in at 2:01.83 and
Lanie McAlpin put up a 2:04.78. The final two Aggie swimmers in this event were Raega Nentwich, 2:05.68, and Lilly Araujo, 2:09.68.
In the 100-yard freestyle, four Aggies finished in succession as
Picabo Bender led the way at 52.15, while
Sina Wegel at 52.38 and
Lauryn Dean at 52.76, were close behind. The remaining four NM State competitors in the 100-yard freestyle were Mak Sutherland who came in at 53.69,
Ashley Reynolds posting a time of 53.85,
Grace Laporte at 54.22 and
Georgia Brown closing out the group putting up a 54.23.
New Mexico State's best performance throughout the invite came from
Lauren Wood in the 200-yard breaststroke as she came in second place after posting a time of 2:14.05 in the finals. Three more Aggies also competed in this event with Wood, including Barb Krizanova who finished in 2:19.11,
Hanna McGowan at 2:20.37 and
Logan Morris completing the event at 2:29.54.
As the day neared its end, NM State competed in the 200-yard freestyle. The charge was led by Nattie French who came in at 2:08.78. The 200-yard freestyle led into the 400-yard freestyle relay, which was the last event of the invitational. The relay team of
Picabo Bender,
Sina Wegel,
Lauryn Dean and Johanna Pettersson finished the event with a time of 3:27.58, which put the group in ninth place.
The New Mexico State Aggies swimming and diving team will take a short break and get ready to compete on Dec. 3, in Flagstaff, Ariz., on the campus of Northern Arizona.
