THE STARTING BLOCK
• NM State swim will be racing against someone else for the first time in 12 days when they kick off the Dixie State Invitational in St. George, Utah. This will be the first invitational style meet for the Aggies as they compete against swimmers from 10 different programs.
• The Utah-based meet will start on Thursday morning with prelims running from 10 a.m. MT to noon each day. Finals will then follow from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT | NM State 118, North Texas 179
• The Aggies closed out their stay in Texas with a tough meet against North Texas in Denton, Texas. NM State was led by
Aimee Burton, who secured a pair of individual wins as the Aggies made a push at the end of the meet.
• Junior
Italia Aranzabal also had a strong showing, finishing second in both the one-meter and three-meter diving events.
• The 100-yard freestyle was one of the Aggies best races as
Airam Oliva-Aun and
Neza Kocijan went 1-2 in that event.
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
• New Mexico State will be one of 11 schools represented this weekend with Dixie State, BYU, CSU Bakersfield, Cal State East Bay, UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Loyola Marymount, Northern Colorado and Pepperdine all in attendance.
• The invitational will be an opportunity for the Aggies to see some familiar competition as Dixie State and Northern Colorado both compete in the Western Athletic Conference.
• The last time the Aggies shared the pool with the Bears and Trailblazers was at last year's WAC Swimming & Diving Championships. NM State led the pack with a second-place finish, while Northern Colorado finished in fourth and Dixie State took seventh.
• CSU Bakersfield enters the meet coming off of a pair dominant wins over Pomona-Pitzer (186.5-113.5) and Pacific (184-110).
• The Tritons of UC San Diego also enter the week as one of the strongest team, putting toghether wins over both UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara in their previous two duals.
THOUGHTS ENTERING DIXIE STATE INVITATIONAL
"We've had three months of working hard and building into our season," said Head Coach
Rick Pratt. "We've had several tough dual meets and this invite is an opportunity to see where we stand half way through the season with a little rest. This three day format is what we're preparing for at the end and we're hoping for some exciting races and a chance to show off some of our new skills that we've learnt this fall. There will be a large and competitive field here and we've got to look at swimming one race and one session at a time. If we can stay in the present and focus on what's in front of us, I think it should be a fun weekend."
COMING UP NEXT
• The Aggie will be on break for nearly a month before heading to Riverside, Calif., to compete in the California Baptist Invitational. The two-day meet will begin Friday, Dec. 17.
