GREENSBORO, N.C.— Just weeks into his collegiate career, Colorado Mesa University redshirt freshman diver Ammar Hassan has made Maverick history as he became the first member of the CMU swimming and diving programs to ever win a national title. 
 
A native of 6^th of October, Egypt, who represented his native land at the 2017 FINA World Diving Championships before joining the Maverick program, Hassan scored 564.30 points in the 11-dive format to win the 1-meter title by a wide 41.1 point margin on Thursday evening at the NCAA Division II National Championships, which continue through Saturday here at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
 
Hassan enrolled at CMU for this semester and made his collegiate debut by winning both the 1 and 3-meter titles at last month's Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships.
 
He is the just the third Maverick individual nation champion of the last five days and the fourth NCAA Division II National Champion in CMU's all-sports history.  Spencer Jahr and Nolan Ellis won the heptathlon and pole vault, respectively, at last weekend's indoor track and field championships while James Martinez won a 2015 title in wrestling.
 
Teammate Sage D'Ambrosia also had a strong effort on Thursday to finish fifth with 506.65 points en-route to his fourth career first team all-America honor.  Sophomore Noah Macomber finished 10^th in the afternoon preliminary session with 440.85 points and picks up second team All-America accolades.
 
"I am just so proud after tonight," CMU Diving Coach Logan Pearsall said.  "I'm always proud to be a Maverick but tonight was amazing.
 
"I've been around D-2 diving for 11 years as both a coach and athlete and I have would have to say that this was the best finals I've seen as a whole.  Every diver in finals brought it tonight and our guys have the right to be very proud of their performance," Pearsall commented about the competition that saw six of the eight finalists score of 500 points.
 
"There are no words for Ammar's performance.  He was totally locked in.  His confidence kept building as the finals progressed and it was evident," Pearsall said.
 
He noted that Hassan, who was the top qualifier out of the preliminaries 543 points, scored 70 points on his third dive of the 6-dive finals session with a front 3 ½ tuck.  That helped him build a large lead going into the final round.
 
"The building was silent for his last dive and it was awesome to see all eyes on him.  Every day is great as a Maverick, but today was the best one so far," an elated Pearsall said.
 
Meanwhile, D'Ambrosia had finished sixth in the event last year, fourth as a sophomore in 2016 and 15^th in 2015 but surpassed his scored in each with Thursday's performance. 
 
The diving efforts were not the only highlight of the night as the Maverick quartet of Eric Berg, Josh Bedford, Morgan Bean and Sky Hirsch finished 13th in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3 minutes, 15.95 seconds, the fastest in program history and just off the altitude-adjusted school-record of 3:15.59, recorded in 2017 when the Mavericks won the RMAC title at home in 3:15.99.
 
Each earned Second Team All-America certificates for Thursday's effort.  Bedford now has three such certificates in two days while Berg and Hirsch picked up their second as fellow members of the Mavericks' 15^th place 200 medley relay team on Wednesday.
 
With 41 points from diving, the eight from the relay and eight from Wednesday, the Mavericks are tied for 12^th with 57 team points at the mid-way point of the meet.
 
Earlier in the day, several other Maverick swimmers competed in preliminary heats but did not advance to the finals.
 
The women's 200 free relay team of Megan Sirijariyavat, Sierra Forbord, Maddie Pressler and Maddie McClain finished 21^st in 1:34.78 while the men's quartet of Hirsch, Bedford, Chris Radomski and Bean placed 19^th in 1:21.88.
 
Sam Bryant finished 23^rd in the 400 individual medley, touching in 4:00.03 while Forbord, a freshman, swam a personal-best time of 1:51.56 to place 25^th in the 200 free.
 
Pressler, Kennedy Bright, Sirijariyavat and Forbord then finished 24th in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:51.14.