LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Lindsay Puhalski won a trio of events to help lead the White team to a narrow 84-79 victory over the Crimson squad at the NM State women's swimming & diving team's Crimson & White intrasquad meet Wednesday afternoon at the NM State Swimming & Diving Complex.
Puhalski, a sophomore out of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, emerged as the victor in the 200-yard freestyle (1:55.48), the 200-yard backstroke (2:08.21) and the 200-yard IM (2:08.40) in order to allow her White squad to eke out a win over the Crimson team.
In addition to Puhalski's trio of wins, Skylar Welle notched two victories as well. The New Prague, Minn., native was victorious in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.03) as well as the 200-yard breaststroke (2:25.74) in order to provide more points for the White team.
For the Crimson team, Maude Boily-Dufour, Molly Hill and Airam Oliva-Aun each won one event. Boily-Dufour (58.86) earned a narrow victory over runner-up Carli Baldwin (59.11) in the 100-yard backstroke. Of the two competitors in the 200-yard butterfly, Hill (2:12.41) bested Kat Harston (2:12.95) by a little over a half-second.
The 50-yard freestyle featured Oliva-Aun tie Neza Kocijan for first place as both swam identical times of 24.05 in the shortest event of the meet.
On the diving platform, Italia Aranzabal won both the one-meter (227.55) and the three-meter (268.20) events. Kate Malinowski finished second in both the one-meter (214.35) and three-meter (223.35) dives.
Other event winners included Rachel Ponte in the 100-yard butterfly (58.48), Lina Khiyara in the 500-yard freestyle (5:24.28) and Zoey Dodson in the 1,000-yard freestyle (11:10.93). In the relay events, White's fourseome of Kocijan, Ponte, Puhalski and Welle claimed victory in the 200-yard medley relay (1:46.94) by three-hundredths of a second. The Crimson quartet of Elizabeth Cervantez-Vanderlugt, Lauren Hemburrow, Oliva-Aun and Khiyara won the 400-yard freestyle relay in a time of 3:34.02.
QUOTABLE | HEAD COACH RICK PRATT
"I was really surprised by some of our performances today. It's still early and we've got lots to work on, but it's a great sign of things to come. There were many highlights today. Lindsay Puhalski was really impressive as was Skylar Welle and many more of our student-athletes. The energy and atmosphere of the meet was awesome and I'm excited for things to come."
COMING UP NEXT
• NM State readies for its first dual meet of the 2021-22 campaign when WAC foe Northern Colorado comes to Las Cruces. The Aggies and Bears are set to begin their dual meet at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 9, from the NM State Swimming & Diving Complex.
++NM State++
