PHARR, Texas – NM State finished its week in South Texas on Saturday as they concluded the WAC Championships at the City of Pharr Natatorium. Despite turning in a pair of individual top-three finishes on the last day of competition, the Aggies closed the week slotted in fifth place as a team as they compiled 459 total points.
 
"Our team fought hard today, and we left everything on deck," said Head Coach Rick Pratt. "I'm proud of our seniors and our young team who learned much this weekend. We had top-three finishes in the majority of events and broke six school records along with many new all-time top-ten finishes. Third place was close, and it could have gone differently but the placing does not reflect the competitiveness of our team and the quality of performances our team had this weekend. The future is bright for our program and our team is excited to build on our accomplishments."
 
In total, the Aggies will leave Texas with new school records in six events this week while tallying podium finishes in nine official events not including a first-place finish in the exhibition team diving event.
 
Naomi Slee started the evening off with a splash as she managed to break two records in a singular race as she posted program-best times in both the 1000 free and 1650 free during the longest event of the weekend. Slee's time of 10:07.05 at the 1000-yard split came in more than three seconds faster than the Aggies' previous record. Meanwhile, Slee kept her foot on the gas as she clocked in at 16:45.05 to finish second in the 1650 free while snapping the Aggie record by nearly six seconds.
 
In the very next event, Lindsay Puhalski tallied her fifth podium finish of the week as she turned in a third-place finish in the 200 back with a time of 1:58.66. Thanks to a sixth podium finish later in the evening, Puhalski would finish with four bronze medals and two silver medals across the four-day event.
 
Later, a trio of NM State divers took on the WAC's exhibition team event and finished atop the field. Casey Schmidt, Italia Aranzabal and Kate Malinowski joined forces to earn gold in the event that could soon be an official event that counts toward the team standings.
 
The Aggies also shined in the final event of the week as Aimee Burton, Lindsay Puhalski, Naomi Slee and Katie Rink put together a time of 3:21.45 in the 400 free relay, giving the four of them, and the Aggies, one final silver medal in Pharr, Texas.

Day Three Standings
1. Northern Arizona - 835 points
2. Grand Canyon - 605 points
3. Northern Colorado - 493 points
4. Utah Tech - 462 points
5. NM State - 459 points
6. California Baptist - 300 points
7. Idaho - 279 points
8. Seattle U - 172points