NM Stories “Almost Famous” Casey Schmidt October 12, 2023 3:10 pm By: Casey Schmidt Lina Khiyara is a third-year swimmer on the New Mexico State University Swim and Dive teams. She is from Belgium and has competed in over 15 different countries. In the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo, Lina represented Morocco and swam the 200-meter freestyle race. She competed at just 18-years-old! Her favorite meet was the 2021 World Championships (25M) which were hosted in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Lina is no stranger to the media and has several news and Olympic.com appearances. Here in the States, Lina enjoys an anything but normal lifestyle. In addition to being apart of the swim team and training 20+ hours a week, she is also studying chemical engineering with a heavy and demanding course load. She’s an incredibly hard worker and keeps her head down. Humble is an understatement. Zach Hawley is the head diving coach at New Mexico State university. Prior to coaching here, he has coached many other universities and club teams. Long before his coaching career though, he was apart of a traveling circus. A stunt diver with the company Mirage Entertainment, Zach traveled throughout the northeast portion of the United States dressed as a pirate and jumping off 25-meter ladders into tiny pools of water. One of his most impressive tricks was to light himself completely on fire before descending the long, 70-foot, drop to the water below. Needless to say, this man is a character, and virtually fearless. He is also the best coach that NMSU has ever seen! Zoey Dotson is a former New Mexico State University swimmer who decided to drop everything to peruse her career in music.. While it was one of the most difficult decisions she has had to make, she has no regrets. Zoey is apart of the Roswell symphony and spend the past summer in Canada with the Pacific Region International Summer Musical Academy. She is hoping to expand her musical career and finish her undergrad at the Bob Cole Conservatory at Cal State University Long Beach and then hopefully earn her masters in musical performance in London. Elegant and graceful, this young musician has a bright future ahead. About Author Casey Schmidt See author's posts Post Navigation Previous Photojournalism PaperNext “Almost Famous” More Stories NM Stories NMSU Photography ALMOST FAMOUS Deja Boyd October 17, 2024 8:48 am NM Stories The Walmart Chronicles (Dirty Work) pedro acosta October 2, 2024 11:32 am NM Stories Almost Famous pedro acosta October 2, 2024 12:05 am