LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State swimming and diving team defeated Western Athletic conference foe Idaho 180-118 on Monday afternoon at the New Mexico State Swimming and Diving Complex.
 
"Managing December is a really tricky month for us," said associate head coach Rachel Judge. "We went to California and had a great meet at sea level and then the girls got to go home for a week for the Christmas break. It is hard to stay healthy with the traveling and chaos of this time of the year but we came back and had a tremendous week of training. Idaho is a great competitor for us and one of the teams that really brings out the best in our racing. We had some impressive swims but there is still work to do before we start fine-tuning for WAC. "
 
The Aggies' squad of Barbora Krizanova, Hanna McGowan, Reagan Nentwich and Lauren Hemburrow started the meet with a victory for NM State in the 200 Medley relay with a time of 1:45.44. The day's next event saw Moana Houde-Camirand (10:51.89), Mikaela Miele (11:17.61) and Lillian Araujo (11:23.88) finish third, fourth and fifth respectively in the 1000 Free.
 
After Anabel Ivanov touched second in the 200 free (1:56.06) and Nentwich also finished second in the 100 Back (58.98), New Mexico State swept the top-three spots in the 100 Breast. McGowan finished first at 1:04.37 while Lauren Wood (1:06.03) and Ashley Reynolds (1:06.58) finished second and third. NM State then picked up another win when Katherine Harston finished first in the 200 Fly (2:06.14). Lanie McAlpin placed second at 2:08.01.
 
Then, freshman Neza Kocijan recorded a first-place finish and nine points for the Aggies in the 50 free with a time of 24.66. Teammate Airam Oliva-Aun finished second at 24.91. After a break at the conclusion of the 50 free, Hemburrow finished second in the 100 free at 53.31 with Kocijan (53.93) in third and Oliva-Aun placing fourth (54.15).
 
Next, Alix Knagg secured a victory in the 200 Back with a time of 2:07.64 while Lauren Wood (2:20.86) and McGowan (2:22.84) went one-two in the 200 Breast. NM State then recorded two more first-place finishes with Harston (5:10.53) winning the 500 Free and Nentwich the 100 Fly at 57.22. McAlpin wrapped up the swimming portion of the meet with a win in the 200 IM at 2:11.37, just ahead of Krizanova at 2:11.83.
 
On the diving side, Aggie divers continued a strong season with more solid performances in the 1m and 3m events. In the 1m board, MacKinna Hauff (292.91), Raina Brommer (284.75) and Sheridan Decker (270.65) swept the top three spots. Brommer then finished the best of all NM State divers in the 3m in second place with a score of 288.30. Decker (285.35) and Hauff (267.40) finished third and fifth respectively.
 
The New Mexico State swimming and diving team returns to the pool when it hosts Battle of I 25 rival New Mexico on Saturday, Jan. 19, at 11:30 a.m. (MT). As always, all fans receive free entry to every Aggie home meet.