Idaho vs New Mexico State
Friday, Nov. 4 | 4:30 p.m.
Moscow, Idaho | UI Swim Center
FREE ADMISSION

Idaho women's swimming and diving will host its home opener Friday, against New Mexico State. The 16-event meet will begin with three-meter diving at 4:30 p.m., in the UI Swim Center. The Vandals (2-5) spent the first month of the season on the road, competing against seven teams at six meets in five weeks.

ABOUT NEW MEXICO STATE: The Aggies (1-1) started their season with a home win against Northern Colorado. This will be New Mexico State's first road trip of the season. The Aggies lost their last outing against Wyoming, Oct. 20, at home. NMSU boasts its greatest strengths in the backstroke and breaststroke events thus far this season.

The Vandals and Aggies crossed paths twice last season, once in a dual meet and again at the WAC Championships. Idaho prevailed with a narrow 123-119 victory in the regular season. At the conference meet, NMSU outtouched the Vandals in the final event of the week to claim second place by seven points over third-place Idaho.

BREASTSTROKE SHOWDOWN: Idaho senior Cara Jernigan has been one of the top Vandals in the early portion of the 2017-18 season. Jernigan's season-best time of 1:05.35 in the 100-yard breaststroke ranks third in the WAC, just behind New Mexico State's Hanna McGowan. Jernigan and McGowan battled at the 2017 WAC Championships, with McGowan edging out Jernigan by three one-hundredths of a second in prelims for the final spot in the A Final of the 100 breaststroke. Jernigan responded with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke, besting McGowan by three spots. The Aggies also have Lauren Wood in the breaststroke events. Wood was third in the 200 and sixth in 100 at last year's conference championship.

FRONT HEAVY: Idaho will be competing in its seventh event in six weeks when New Mexico State comes to town. The calendar year will wrap up with a three-day invitational and a winter training trip. Once the calendar turns to 2018, the Vandals will host Northern Colorado (Jan. 26) and Oregon State (Jan. 27) in the only two dual meets of the spring semester. The season culminates with the WAC Championships (Feb. 21-24) and NCAA Championships (March 14-17).

"We set up the schedule like this so that it's pretty arduous at the beginning," said head coach Mark Sowa. "Then we try to filter in some home meets, give them some rest, get to the mid-point of the season and kind of evaluate where we're at."

LOOKING AHEAD: The meet against New Mexico State is Idaho's last dual meet before its midseason invitational at the Phil Hansel Invitational, where the Vandals will have a chance to compete in a three-day championship format with prelims and finals. The Phil Hansel Invitational takes place Nov. 17-19, at the University of Houston.

"Once we get into a championship format things change a little bit," Sowa said. "That's when our depth really shows up. Our top end has a little bit more rest and a little bit more giddy up and the scales tip in our favor."

LAST TIME OUT: Idaho women's swimming and diving dropped a tight meet at Northern Arizona Saturday, 173-122, the second meet in less than 24 hours for the Vandals. Cara Jernigan and Lauren Votava each posted a win and Idaho's 400-yard freestyle relay wrapped up the day with a victory.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: Friday's meet will follow a traditional 16-event format. The full schedule is below.

3-meter Diving
200-yard Medley Relay
1000-yard Freestyle
200-yard Freestyle
100-yard Backstroke
100-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
50-yard Freestyle
1-meter Diving
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Backstroke
200-yard Breaststroke
500-yard Freestyle
100-yard Butterfly
10-minute Break
200-yard Individual Medley
400-yard Freestyle Relay