GREENSBORO, N.C.— Two days after becoming the first NCAA Division II National Champion in program history, Colorado Mesa University redshirt freshman diver Ammar Hassan made even more history as he led the Mavericks to a 1-2-6 finish with a school and championship-record setting effort on the 3-meter springboard on Saturday here at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
 
Hassan, who is just a redshirt freshman, scored 624.80 points to break the 2014 meet record of 615.95 points set by Clarion's (Pa.) Heath Calhoun and in the process became the Mavericks' first ever 2-time NCAA Division II National Champion in all sports.
 
He also became the first diver since St. Cloud State's Christopher White in 2012 to sweep the 1 and 3-meter titles in the same year and joins White and Maverick Diving Coach Logan Pearsall as the only three men to do so in this decade.  Pearsall won two of his four career NCAA titles in 2010 while a student-athlete at Clarion.
 
Hassan, who hails from 6^th of October, Egypt, just outside of the capital of Cairo, joined the Maverick program this semester after representing his native country at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary and was also named as the NCAA Division II Diver of the Year by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association in a post-championship ceremony.  Pearsall was also honored as the Men's Diving Coach of the Year. 
 
The honors are the first in CMU history.
 
"Something we've worked on from his first day on campus was his confidence," Pearsall said about Hassan.  "It's been about believing in himself and his amazing talent.  Tonight, he just stepped up and realized, I am this good."
 
"It's been a lot of fun to coach him," Pearsall added.
 
Meanwhile on Saturday, Maverick sophomore Noah Macomber also had a stellar night of his own finishing second with 586.00 points, which if not for Hassan's heroic night, would have broke Hassan's former school-record of 565.50 points set last month en-route to a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title.
 
Senior Sage D'Ambrosia also took sixth with 489.80 points and finishes his brilliant career with eight all-America honors in as many opportunities, five of which were of the first team variety.
 
"Tonight was awesome," Pearsall said.  "This was the first time we put three in finals.  They all dove well and exceeded expectations.
 
"Noah (Macomber) started it off just smoked his first dive and second dive and was beating Ammar  (Hassan)," Pearsall said. 
 
It was back-and-forth until Ammar hit his staple and hit it," Pearsall commented about Hassan's fifth-round dive that gave him the lead.
 
This had to be one of the best first and second place battles in Division II history.  For it to be with both of our guys was awesome."
 
Pearsall was also complimentary of D'Ambrosia, his first 4-year athlete.
 
"He will always have a special place in my heart," Pearsall said.
 
"He set the bar high and he has helped put CMU diving on the map.  We owe him a lot."
 
New program bests
 
With 50 points from the 3-meter diving event alone plus another two from now 9-time all-American swimmer Sam Bryant, who took 15^th in the 1,650-yard freestyle, the Mavericks finished the 4-day championship with a  new program-record 113 team points, good for 16th place, which is also their best ever finish at the national meet.  They had finished 17^th with 103 points last year.
 
The Maverick women also finished a program-best 17^th with a new school-record 71 points, breaking the mark of 55 set last year en-route to a 22^nd place finish.
 
Pearsall's continent of five divers in the official championship was a large reason why as the trio of Maverick men scored 91 team points in the two diving events.  Meanwhile, Brittany Dixon and Kelsey Vreeman each turned in top-8 finishes in both women's events and scored 53 of the Mavericks' points.  Each diver earned all-America honors on both boards as the Maverick divers came home with nine first team All-America plaudits and Macomber's second team honor, earned via a tenth place finish on the 1-meter on Thursday.
 
The Mavericks swimmers also contributed to the new program-best finishes.  Earlier in Saturday evening's session, Bryant swam in the final heat of the 1,650 free, touching in 15 minutes, 44.87 seconds, to close out his brilliant career.
 
Freshman Torsten Rau had swum the event in an earlier morning session heat and took 19^th overall with a time of 15:48.22.  He also finished 19^th in the 200 backstroke preliminaries with a time of 1:47.80 while moving up two spots to No. 2 in school history for the event only behind now Maverick assistant coach Justin Hastings.
 
The Maverick women also had two swims in the morning session as Sierra Forbord finished 26^th in the 100 free with a time of 51.18.  She then opened the 400 free relay with a split of 51.61 as teammates Megan Sirijariyavat, Maddie Pressler and Maddie McClain brought the Mavericks home in 3:25.67, which was good for 17^th place.  The team was just 0.04 seconds out of a spot in the consolation finals.