HOUSTON – The New Mexico State women's swimming and diving team had a strong showing on day two of the Western Athletic Conference Championships Thursday evening at CRWC Natatorium. The Aggies improve to fourth-place overall with a score of 170.
 
"We had some inspiring swims today and our team's energy was awesome" said head coach Rick Pratt. "Picabo's 500 was .01 off our school record and was a three-second drop from her best time, but she had a really gutsy race. Alix Knagg's second-place finish in the 200 IM was also incredible and Ruby's 50-yard free made tonight special. MacKinna moved up three spots in the three-meter dive as well. Moving forward we have some ground to make up, but overall we're performing well and excited to keep going."
 
NM State's Picabo Bender nabbed a second-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle after clocking a time of 4:50.95. Grace Laporte finished 13th with a time of 4:59.36, while Lillian Araujo placed 16th with a time of 5:02.71.
 
Alix Knagg recorded a time of 2:02.41 in the 200-yard IM event to finish second. Lauren Wood came in seventh-place with a time of 2:04.41 and Barbora Krizanova placed 15th when she posted a time of 2:07.34.  
 
In the 50-yard freestyle category, Ruby Rodriguez secured a ninth-place finish with a time of 23.55, followed by Sina Wegel in 11th after posting a time of 23.86.
 
MacKinna Hauff posted a score of 272.60 in the three-meter diving event to capture fifth-place. Raina Brommer (265.60) and Sheridan Decker (209.20) finished 11th and 16th, respectively.
 
The team of Johanna Pettersson, P. Bender, Rodriguez and Wegel posted a time of 1:33.87 in the 200-yard free relay to earn a fifth-place finish for the Aggies.  
 
New Mexico State returns to the pool at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 23, for day three of competition, beginning with the 400-yard IM preliminaries.