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Aggies climb to second as Naomi Slee takes 500 free title, team clinches gold in 200 free relay.
Source: NMSU Athletics
By Matthew Knope
Photo: Courtesy Western Athletic Conference
HOUSTON – The 2025 WAC Swimming and Diving Championships rolled on for day two from the University of Houston on Thursday. NM State earned two gold medals on the evening, including its strongest showing yet in the 500 free. Naomi Slee claimed first place, with Katie Rink taking the bronze medal less than a second later. Elsewhere, Rick Pratt‘s squad picked up its first team title of the week in the 200 free relay and Mira Tinani advanced to the A Final in the 1m dive.
The morning began with foreshadowing of the evening’s events to come. In the prelims of the 500 free, Naomi Slee finished first, two spots ahead of teammate Katie Rink. The next event was the 200 IM prelims, where Faye McDonagh (2:02.93, fifth place) and Kodi Wiman (2:03.84, seventh place) each earned a spot in the A Final. In the following 50 free prelims, Emily Dobbins tallied a third-place showing in 22.91 seconds. Mira Tinani wrapped up the Aggies’ preliminary outings with a third-place score of 255.70, advancing to the A Final. Meanwhile, Peytton Moore secured a spot in the B Finals with a 209.15 mark.
Thursday’s finals kicked off with the 200 free relay as Emily Dobbins, Dijana Mazumdar, Kira Brownell and Katie Rink got the nod from the Aggie coaches. The quartet not only made it onto the podium, but earned the gold medal with a time of 1:31.65.
The next finals event was the 1m dive, where Mira Tinani’s score of 229.05 earned her an eighth-place finish. In the B Final, Peytton Moore posted a 226.10, taking sixth place in the event.
The ensuing event, the 500 free final, was the best of the meet for NM State through two days. As was the case in the prelims, Naomi Slee took the gold medal, posting a pool-best 4:48.95. Not even a full second later, fellow Aggie Katie Rink earned a bronze medal with a 4:49.80, solidifying a majority of the podium for the Crimson & White.
The subsequent event was the 200 IM, with Faye McDonagh and Kodi Wiman taking to the pool in the A Final. The former missed the podium by four tenths of a second, posting a fourth-place time of 2:01.66. Wiman wasn’t far behind, clocking a 2:02.76 time to finish sixth.
The last Aggies to hit the water on Thursday were Emily Dobbins and Dijana Mazumdar, doing so in the 50 free A Final. Dobbins picked up a podium spot with a 22.99 mark, less than a fifth of a second off Northern Colorado’s second-place finisher. Mazumdar touched the wall exactly a quarter of a second later, finishing in 23.24 seconds, narrowly missing a top-three finish in her freshman season. Elsewhere in the same event, Kira Brownell finished sixth in the B Final (23.64). Kathryn Gyde picked up the top time in the C Final (23.44), with Callie Ceshker coming in fourth (23.81).
On Thursday, the Aggies tallied 155 points, led by two first-place swimming finishes. Through two of four days, NM State is placed second place in the women’s team standings with 238 points. Northern Arizona leads the field with 303 points.
QUOTABLE | HEAD COACH RICK PRATT
“There were many great moments for our team today. We owned the deck and the support they showed for one another was infectious. We had strong showings in each event and had many personal-best swims. Naomi [Slee] and Katie [Rink]’s 500’s were awesome and my ears are still ringing from the cheers during our 200 free relay. We had nearly all personal bests in the 200 IM’s today, including big drops in the finals from Faye [McDonagh] and Kodi [Wiman]. We also had some incredible 50’s from several swimmers and Emily swimming 22 three times today was lights out. Diving had another solid day with all finishing in scoring positions. There are still lots of events to go and we’ve got to keep things rolling.”
UP NEXT
The WAC Championships roll on tomorrow for the penultimate day at the University of Houston campus. Friday’s finals events include the 100 fly, 400 IM, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 400 medley relay in addition to the platform dive. NM State will hit the pool at 9:30 a.m. MT for the prelims of the 100 fly, 11:30 a.m. MT for the platform dive prelims and 5:00 p.m. for the opening of swimming finals. Starting at 5:00 p.m., all events will be streamed live on ESPN+. More information can be found at wacsports.com. The meet will conclude this Saturday, March 1.
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