GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's and women's swimming teams completed dominating and record-setting team victories on Saturday, the third and final day of the A3 Performance/CMU Invite held in the Mavericks' El Pomar Natatorium.
 
The Maverick men won six of the day's seven events, including a meet record by senior Sky Hirsch, and had seven swimmers set NCAA provisional qualifying times.  Three Maverick divers also set marks that qualify them for the NCAA Division II National Championship qualifier in an exhibition 1-meter event, led by school and meet-record setting Sage D'Ambrosia.
 
The CMU women officially won three events and had the fastest time in another, while setting a pair of school records and turning in three swimming and two more diving NCAA qualifying performances.
 
Throughout the meet, the Maverick men won 20 of the 22 events, racking up 1,553 points to easily break the team scoring record of the now 8-year old meet.  The Mavericks have now won seven team titles and bested their 2012 winning score of 1512 ½ points, also broke the margin of victory record winning by 766 points over Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Colorado School of Mines, which finished second with 787 points, good for their fifth runner-up performance in seven tries.  The CMU Club team took third with 163 points.
 
The CMU women were victorious in nine of the events and had superior depth to score a meet-record 1,340 points, 116 more than their former record set in 2011.  Their 611-point margin of victory over Mines (729) was also CMU's largest since that year and is good for their fifth all-time win.
 
Dixie State University was third with 568 points while Western State Colorado University took fourth in the 8-team field with 532 points, thanks in large part to Randi Yarnell, who won the Swimmer of the Meet award after going 4-for-4 in individual events, breaking her own meet record in three of them.  CSU-Pueblo (248), Adams State (232), Nebraska-Kearney (112) and the CMU Club Team (24) rounded out the standings.
 
CMU's Nico Tscherner narrowly claimed the Men's Swimmer of the Meet award after recording 77 points with three event wins and a runner-up finish.
 
Sam Bryant started the men's night in a thrilling 1,650-yard freestyle win, touching in 15 minutes, 49.23 seconds, narrowly missing his own meet record of 15:48.82.  That time was well under the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 16:25.01.  Torsten Rau (15:59.21) and Jacob Dexter (16:14.42) also reached that standard as the Mavs took the top five spots.
 
Tscherner, who had won the 200 and 400 individual medleys earlier in the meet, then claimed the 200 backstroke in 1:50.22 to lead a 1-2-3 Maverick sweep with Eric Berg (1:52.10), and Rau (1:56.95)  who only had less than 10 minutes of rest after his mile performance.  Rau had won the preliminary portion of the event in an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:50.80.
 
Hirsch then turned in a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 45.58 in the 100 free to break the 4-year old meet record of 45.61 (Zack Gertig, Mines) in a 1-5 Maverick sweep.
 
Mines' Sam Knott then claimed the Orediggers lone victory of the night in the 200 breast (2:05.42) before Chris Radomski won the 200 butterfly in 1:51.42 after turning in an even better NCAA "B" cut time of 1:50.97 in the morning preliminary session.
 
Jerry Veneris, Jason Hicks, Morgan Ban and Hirsch then won the 400 free relay in 3:02.68, just off the meet record of 3:02.37.
 
The Maverick women received event wins from Grace Payton in the 200 back (2:05.59), Danielle Jefferies in the 200 fly (2:06.54) and a school-record 1-meter diving exhibition win by Kelsey Vreeman.
 
Meanwhile, Isabelle Hansson, Megan Sirijariyavat and Sierra Forbord clocked NCAA provisional qualifying times.  Hansson's 1650 free time of 17:52.19 was good for second behind 3-event winner Mia Wood of Mines, while Sirijariyavat (51.37) and Forbord (51.80) took second and third in the 100 free behind Yarnell, who won that event in a meet-record 50.36 seconds.
 
The Maverick quartet of Sirijariyavat, Forbord, Maddie McClain and Natalie Saul then turned in the fastest time (3:27.97) in the 400 free relay.  That swim was an exhibition performance.
 
In the preliminary session, those four had combined to clock a school-record setting time of 1:34.82 in a 200 free relay time trial, breaking the former school record of 1:35.11, set earlier in 2017.

Later in that session, Vreeman had won the diving exhibition with 264.45 points after turning in a 266.40-point preliminary round effort.  She claimed all three diving competitions throughout the weekend.  Brittany Dixon was second with 260.25 points as both surpassed the NCAA qualifying standard of 255 points.
 
Meanwhile, D'Ambrosia won the men's 1-meter exhibition competition with 354.05 points, good for a meet and school-record.  He had also broke his own former school-record mark of 346.30, with a preliminary round score of 352.05 points.
 
Noah Macomber was second in the finals with 306.10 points after turning in a mark of 318.90 in the preliminaries while Chandler Livingston took third at 286.75 to earn his trip to the national championship meet as well.
 
In total, eight Maverick divers —five men and three women— set NCAA qualifying marks throughout the meet.