Meet Four
NM State (0-0) vs. Northern Colorado (0-0)
Saturday, Oct. 9 | 11:30 a.m. | NM State Swimming & Diving Complex | Las Cruces, N.M.

THE STARTING BLOCK
• For its first home dual meet in almost two years, the NM State swimming & diving team welcomes WAC foe Northern Colorado to the NM State Swimming & Diving Complex for a Saturday morning competition.
• The league one-on-one meet is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. Northern Colorado has won the last two dual meets between the programs with the Aggies' last victory over the Bears coming on Oct. 14, 2017.

THE SCHEDULE
• A total of 16 events will take place once the Aggies and Bears arrive at the NM State Swimming & Diving Complex Saturday morning. The events, in order of their occurrence, are three-meter diving, the 200-yard medley relay, 1,000-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard fly, 50-yard freestyle, one-meter diving, 100-yard freestyle, 200-meter backstroke, 200-meter breaststroke, 500-yard freestyle, 100-yard fly, 200-yard IM and 400-yard freestyle relay. The final two events will take place following a break period.

DUAL MEET HISTORY | NM STATE vs. NORTHERN COLORADO
10.5.19 | L, 162-136
10.13.18 | L, 187.5-112.5
10.14.17 | W, 171-127
10.29.17 | W, 153-88
10.29.16 | W, 175.5-116.5
11.7.15 | L, 126-117
11.2.14 | W, 170-128
10.29.12 | W, 174-110
1.21.11 | W, 132-108
10.31.09 | W, 220-79
1.16.09 | W, 155-79
10.10.08 | W, 183-53
10.12.07 | W, 136-107
10.13.07 | W, 198-102
11.8.07 | L, 156.5-141.5
NM State leads 11-4

LAST TIME OUT vs. NORTHERN COLORADO | Northern Colorado 162 at NM State 136 (Oct. 5, 2019)
• The Bears won 10 of the 15 events on the docket and claimed a 162-136 victory over NM State in a WAC dual meet at the NM State Swimming & Diving Complex.
• NM State received wins from Neza Kocijan in the 200-yard freestyle (1:55.97), Kat Harston in the 500-yard freestyle (5:20.91), Rachel Ponte in the 100-yard butterfly (57.48) and Anadel Ivanov in the 100-yard backstroke (58.70).
• On the diving platform, Italia Aranzabal won both the one-meter (239.95) and three-meter (264.60) events to amass 18 team points for NM State.
• One of the three relay events went to the Aggies, too, who placed the foursome of Aimee Burton, Ivanov, Kocijan and Airam Oliva-Aun in the lanes for the 400-yard freestyle relay. That NM State quartet was clocked in a time of 3:30.87 to secure another event victory.

ABOUT THE AGGIES
• About to participate in its first dual meet of the 2021-22 campaign, NM State returns all three of its All-WAC First Team honorees from a season ago in Jordan Andrusak, Maude Boily-Dufour and Airam Oliva-Aun.
• Boily-Dufour claimed two individual WAC titles last season including the 200-yard backstroke and a school record in the 100-yard backstroke (54.04). She also finished third in the 100-yard fly and was on the 400-yard medley relay team that finished second.
• Oliva-Aun and Andrusak earned First Team honors for their top-three showings in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard breaststroke respectively. Andrusak also finished among the top-eight in both the 200-yard IM and the 400-yard IM while Oliva-Aun was on the 400-yard freestyle relay team that broke the school record and finished second at WAC Championships.
• Also back for NM State are seven of its 10 All-WAC Second Team performers from last season. That group includes Italia Aranzabal, Aimee Burton, Lauren Hemburrow, Katherine Harston, Neza Kocijan, Lindsey Puhalski and Natalia Villa.
• Last Wednesday afternoon at the NM State Swimming & Diving Complex, Puhalski won a trio of events to help lead the White team to a narrow 84-79 victory over the Crimson squad at the Aggies' Crimson & White intrasquad meet.
• Skylar Welle picked up two victories for NM State at the intrasquad event, too, claiming top finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard IM.
• NM State comes in to the 2021-22 season looking to build off of a banner 2020-21 campaign. That season, the Aggies posted the highest WAC Swimming & Diving Championship point total in the history of the program en route to a runner-up finish.

SCOUTING NORTHERN COLORADO | SCHEDULE | ROSTER
• About to complete in their first dual meet of the season, the Bears head to Las Cruces with reigning WAC Swimmer of the Year Madelyn Moore on their side. The senior shot distance specialist was named he WAC Swimmer of the Week Tuesday after winning seven events at the Intermountain Shootout in Grand Junction, Colo., last week.
• Moore won the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard freestyle and the 50-yard fly in last weekend's event and anchored four relays - the 200-yard freestyle, the 400-yard medley, the 200-yard medley and the 400-yard freestyle.
• At last season's WAC Swimming & Diving Championships, Moore won the 50-yard free as well as the 100-yard free. Also returning for the Bears for 2021-22 is Paula Núñez-Blázquez who captured the WAC title in the 400-yard IM at last seasons championship meet.
• Three of the four members of the Bears' WAC championship 400-yard freestyle relay team - Alison Jackson, Saana Liikonen and Moore - are back in Northern Colorado colors for 2021-22. The Bears posted a third-place finish at last season's WAC Swimming & Diving Championships, finishing behind runner-up NM State and league champion Northern Arizona.

QUOTABLE | HEAD COACH RICK PRATT | "UNC is a very good team who is coming off of a very successful weekend of racing at the CMU Invite. They have some impressive new faces on their roster, the top sprinter in the WAC, and are able to put together some of the best relays in our league. It's going to be a very good early test for our squad who has been working really hard. We are going to have to win some close races and place more focus on our strategies to be successful. It has been a long time since we've been able to host a real dual meet and we're excited to have that chance at home again. The forecast looks great and it's going to be a fun day of competition."

COMING UP NEXT
• Two dual meets in two days represent the next action for the Aggies. NM State heads north to Albuquerque, N.M., for a pair of meets with in-state rival New Mexico. The first of those meets is set for 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29, and the teams wrap up their two-meet schedule at noon on Saturday, Oct. 30 from the Armond H. Seidler Natatorium.

++NM State++