LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State women's swimming and diving team starts 2018 on the road, with its first stop at Arizona for a quad-meet against Arizona, Northern Arizona and Rice on Jan. 5 at noon. The Aggies remain on the road as they take on Grand Canyon, Cal Baptist and Rice on Jan. 6. Events are slated to begin at 1 p.m. (MT).
 
"It's going to be a quick trip," head coach Rick Pratt said. "We're going to swim at Arizona and they're one of the top-25 teams in the country, so that's a great experience for our girls in the midst of coming back from break. We only have a couple of meets left before we start getting ready for conference. Every meet we have is helping us gear up for WAC. When you're ranked 17th like Arizona, that's definitely a great experience."
 
The meet will feature 16 events at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center, which include the 200 medley relay, 1000 free, 200 free, 100 back, 100 breast, 200 fly, 50 free, 100 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 500 free, 100 fly, 400 IM and 400 free relay. The contest will also include the one-meter and three-meter diving events.
 
Next stop for the Aggies is Grand Canyon where they will compete against Cal Baptist, GCU and Rice at the FR Edward J. Reese Aquatic Center. The events taking place are the 100 back, 100 breast, 50 free, 200 free, 1000 free, 200 fly, 200 medley relay, 500 free, 100 fly, 200 breast, 200 back, 100 free, 400 free relay and 200 IM. One-meter and three-meter diving events will also be featured.    
 
"Rice is one of the best teams in Conference USA, so they're going to be really good," Pratt said. "Cal Baptist will make for a solid team in the WAC and Grand Canyon has several top swimmers in the WAC, so they're going to be challenging. I feel like we have a good chance and everybody is pretty healthy. This is our first meet of the year and we haven't raced in over a month, so it's going to be interesting to see how it goes. If we can race the way we have been practicing, we're going to be awesome."
 
The Aggies return to the NM State Swimming and Diving Complex on Jan. 13 as they host CSU-Pueblo. Competition will begin at 11:30 a.m. (MT).