LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State swimming and diving team travels to Riverside, Calif., to compete in the Lancer Invitational hosted by California Baptist on Friday, Dec. 14, and Saturday, Dec. 15.
 
"The end of the semester is always a little tricky coming off of thanksgiving and into final exams.  However, our team has done a great job balancing out everything and getting some rhythm back into our training this week," said head coach Rick Pratt. "We've got a couple girls back and going well who were either sick or injured so that is definitely going to help.  This will be our first meet out of altitude so I'm hoping that will also give us an edge, and the format with all of the events over three sessions is going to give us some great racing opportunities."
 
Friday, Dec. 14, consists of one session with eight events beginning with the 200 Free relay at 2 p.m. (MT). The rest of the session includes the 50 Fly, 50 Breast, 500 Free, 50 Back, 200 IM, 50 Free and 400 Medley relay. 
 
On Saturday, Dec. 15, the first session begins at 9 a.m. and consists of the 200 Medley relay, 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Free, 100 Breast, 100 Back and the 800 Free Relay. The second session gets underway at 2 p.m. and includes the 1650 Free, 100 IM, 200 Back, 100 Free, 200 Breast, 200 Fly and 400 Free relay.
 
Aggie divers are also set to compete at the Lancer Invite, taking part in the 1m and 3m events with preliminaries on Friday, Dec. 14, and finals on Saturday, Dec. 15.
 
"CBU is a very strong team and a good addition to our conference," added Pratt. "They have some strong distance swimmers and talented pieces.  Overall the field is going to be a good environment for us.   To be successful we're going to have to be really focused, energetic, and take one event at a time.  It should be an exciting experience to help us prepare for WAC."
 
Last Time Out
The New Mexico State swimming and diving team took on Northern Arizona at the Lumberjack Invitational on Nov. 16 and 17, in Flagstaff, Ariz. Despite a few strong individual performances, the Aggies were unable to match the Lumberjacks and lost over three sessions.
 
The Aggie squad of Anabel Ivanov, Hanna McGowan, Reagan Nentwich and Lauren Hemburrow set a pool record in the 400 Medley relay with a time of 3:46.78. Nentwich also picked up wins in the 100 back, 200 Back and 100 Fly while McGowan set a pool record in the 200 Breast and picked up a win in the 100 Breast. The NM State relay team of Barbora Krizanova, McGowan, Nentwich and Neza Kocijan notched another first-place finish for the Aggies in the 200 Medley relay (1:42.13).
 
The New Mexico State divers also competed in the 1m, 3m and platform events at the Lumberjack Invitational. In the 3m board, Sheridan Decker placed the highest of the three Aggie divers at fourth place with a score of 532.35. The 1m board saw MacKinna Hauff with the best finish in third place (526.45) while Decker also placed highest in the platform event at 197.50.
 
Up Next
The New Mexico State women's swimming and diving team gets a few weeks off before hosting Western Athletic Conference foe Idaho on Monday, Jan. 7, at 2 p.m. (MT). As always, all events at the NM State Swimming and Diving Complex are free for all fans to attend.