LAS CRUCES, N.M. – On Saturday, NM State Swimming & Diving suffered its first loss of the season. The Aggies hosted Northern Colorado, falling to the Bears by a score of 162.5-137.5. The Crimson & White took seven of 16 event victories, earning 19 of 48 podium spots on the day. With the loss, NM State dipped to 4-1 on the season and fell to 0-1 in MPSF dual meets.   
 
Head Coach Rick Pratt, on the meet: "Today was a tough loss. We had several missed opportunities and had a few swimmers who need to recover more through our heavy training moving forward. We did have several strong performances from our sprinters and Naomi Slee was inspiring, especially with her win in the 400 IM at the end of the meet. Dijana [Mazumdar] also had a big day with some top in-season swims. I was mostly impressed with our divers who have shown some great improvements and have had a very productive couple weeks with coach Gucwa. Overall, we are confident in the work we're putting in and this loss will make us stronger from the lessons we learned today. We've got a busy November coming up and need to keep moving forward and improving our skills."
 
NM State opened up the morning with a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay as Emily Dobbins, Kodi Wiman, Willow Messner and Dijana Mazumdar touched the wall in 1:45.32. Katie Rink followed up with a silver medal of her own in the 1000 free, coming in at 10:35.15. 
 
Freshman Natalia Florian's 1:57.06 mark in the 200 free was barely enough to get the Aggies' only podium spot, coming just two hundredths of a second ahead of fourth place. Shortly after, Thea Masselink made an appearance in second place with a 58.12 mark in the 100 back.
 
In the 100 breast, Kodi Wiman picked up a third-place finish (1:04.43) before Dijana Mazumdar picked up NM State's first win in the 50 free (23.90). Mira Tinani followed up with a gold-medal showing in the 1m dive, clearing the competition with an impressive 299.63 mark.
 
Mazumdar racked up another first-place finish in the 100 free, doing so in 51.35 seconds, but she was the lone Aggie on the podium. Masselink came through in the next event, completing the 200 back in 2:06.10 to grab another silver. 
 
Kodi Wiman and Foteini Charitou became the first Aggie duo to pair up in the top three of an event, going 2-3 in the 200 breast (2:20.36 and 2:24.34, respectively). Katie Rink and Naomi Slee did the same in the ensuing race, finishing the 500 free in 5:09.14 and 5:10.48.
 
Freshman Willow Messner made the third appearance of her young Aggie career on Saturday, picking up a third-place finish in the 100 fly at 57.18 to bring up the final dives of the day. 
 
Tinani wowed in first place yet again, racking up 260.03 points in the 3m. Fellow Aggie Addison Pastiak was the next-highest scorer at 243.60 to grab points for her squad. 
 
In the 400 IM, Naomi Slee eeked out a narrow first-place finish, touching the wall just over a half second ahead of the leading Bear to take the crown in 4:33.25. Finally, to close out the day, NM State sent out Emily Dobbins, Dijana Mazumdar, Kira Brownell and Katie Rink for the 200 free relay. The quartet ended the day strong, finishing ahead of the pack at 1:34.98, less than a fifth of a second ahead of UNC's top group. 
 
UP NEXT
The Aggies will return to action two weeks from now, doing so from Flagstaff, Ariz. The Crimson & White will square off against Northern Arizona on Friday, Nov. 7, in a league dual at 1:00 PM. The following day, the squad will trek to Phoenix for a clash at Grand Canyon. Saturday's matchup will have live statistics available on Swimcloud.
 
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