SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Feb. 26)-Freshman Tricia Kiss led the New Mexico State swimming and diving team on the final day of the 2011 WAC Championships. She became the first Aggie to earn the WAC Freshman of the Year award in school history.

Kiss collected a third-place finish in the 200 back with a school-record performance (2:00.05). As a team, the Aggies finished in fifth place with 405 points. NM State broke 10 school records at the WAC meet and set five NCAA provisional times. Freshman Terrin Seaver also scored in the 200 back with an 11th-place showing.

“Having two girls in the finals get disqualified and finishing fifth was not the way I envisioned the finish of this meet,” head coach Rick Pratt said. “We accomplished so much this weekend and certainly this is still the best team ever at NM State.

“There were no easy points this weekend and my hats off to Kristen Hill, who has produced a great team at Boise State. The top end of our roster really did some amazing things including 10 school records, five NCAA provisional cuts, and a freshman of the year award for Tricia Kiss was a great honor.”

Senior Kelly Conrad broke her own school record in the 100 free (50.70) and earned ninth in her final meet for the Crimson and White. In the 200 breaststroke, senior Alannah Lawrence led the way in seventh (2:20.69). Senior Kelly Runestrand and freshman Katie Hack provided points in the event in 14th (2:21.95) and 16th place (2:27.35), respectively.

On the platform, junior Carly Smith finished in seventh place with 191.80 points in her first WAC meet. The Aggies had five swimmers score in the 1,650 free with junior Brittney Moore taking ninth (17:21.69). Junior Ana Smith followed in 12th (17:25.37), and sophomore Haley Gansneder was 13th (17:29.86). Junior Rachelle Bassen and sophomore Jessi Vlasic claimed 14th (17:32.06) and 15th (17:32.15), respectively.

In the preliminaries of the 200 butterfly, sophomore Beth Cate broke the school record (2:02.63). Sophomore Hannah Ferrin scored in the finals in 10th (2:05.01) along with Smith in 16th (2:09.98).

The Aggies ended the meet with an eighth-place showing in the 400-free relay with the team of Conrad, Seaver, sophomores Kelsey Konicke and Alex Fenton.