GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving teams will continue their lone away stretch of the entire season on Friday, when they head North and West to Provo, Utah for a dual against the NCAA Division I BYU Cougars.
 
Meet details
 
Friday's dual meet with the Cougars will begin at 11:30 a.m. in BYU's on-campus Richards Building Pool.  A total of 16 events will be contested for each gender, including diving on both the 1 and 3-meter boards.
 
An order of the events can be seen below.
 
200 Medley Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
1000 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
Diving
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
100 Fly
Diving
200 IM
200 Free Relay
 
Re-Match
 
Friday's match-up will be CMU's second against the Cougars this young season.  BYU was one of the two visiting teams at CMU's home-opening Intermountain Shootout on Oct. 4 and 5 and came out of the El Pomar Natatorium with a clean sweep of wins against the Mavericks, Air Force and the CMU Club Team. 
 
The Cougar men defeated the Mavericks, 250-142 and Air Force, 215-177 while BYU's women defeated CMU, 293-99 and Air Force, 273-119.
 
BYU has not competed since that meet.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks won three of the four diving events and had 16 top-three finishes in the swimming events in last Saturday's dual at NCAA Division I Denver.
 
On the men's side, Noah Macomber and Ammar Hassan won diving events and set NCAA Division II championship qualifying marks.  Brittany Dixon also won the women's 1-meter diving event while taking second on the 3-meter.
 
In swimming events, Torsten Rau and Samantha White both turned in runner-up finishes to lead the Mavericks.
 
However, the Pioneers won the duals taking the women's decision 202-77 while claiming the men's decision by a 210-88 score.
 
Initial Award Sweep
 
The Mavericks swept all four of the initial set of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week honors for their efforts at the Intermountain Shootout, which were announced last Wednesday (Oct. 9).  On the men's side, Macomber and Rau were named as the RMAC Diver and Swimmers of the Week, respectively, while Dixon and freshman Davy Brown earned those same honors on the women's side.
 
The RMAC did not bestow any such honors today as less than half of the RMAC's teams competed over the weekend.
 
RMAC leaders
 
Although it is young in the season and not all meets have been reported, the Mavericks are dominating the conference performance lists as reported to the NCAA through USA Swimming. The Maverick women have the top time in all 17 individual swimming and four relay events they have competed in this season.  The same can be said for the Maverick men.
 
Torsten Rau leads the conference in five individual events taking over the conference lead in the 200 back and 1,000 free with efforts in Saturday's dual at Denver.    Samantha White lowered her conference-leading 200 breast lead while Isabelle Hansson became the fastest RMAC swimmer in the 1000 free this year on Saturday as well.
 
The Maverick 400 medley relay teams also lead the young season.
 
Here is a listing of the conference leaders.
 
Women
 
50 Free- Natalie Saul & Bret Congdon- 24.65
100 Free- Lauren White -52.69
200 Free- Saul- 1:56.56
500 Free- Grace Payton-5:12.41
1000 Free- Isabelle Hansson- 10:37.51*
1650 Free- Robyn Naze- 17:41.01
50 Back- Davy Brown- 27.35
100 Back- Lauren White- 57.76
200 Back- Brown- 2:06.44
50 Breast- Samantha White- 31.04
100 Breast- Samantha White- 1:05.73
200 Breast- Samantha White- 2:23.83*
50 Fly- Bella Walters- 26.95
100 Fly- Candice Rosen-58.93
200 Fly- Isabelle Hansson- 2:11.79
200 IM- Brown- 2:09.38
400 IM- Brown- 4:33.17
200 Free Relay- Lauren White, Samantha White, Bret Congdon, Natalie Saul- 1:37.86
400 Free Relay- Lauren White, Saul, Noel Scott, Maddie Pressler- 3:34.14
200 Medley Relay- Sarah Fillerup, Samantha White, Candice Rosen, Lauren White- 1:48.88
400 Medley Relay- Davy Brown, Samantha White, Candice Rosen, Lauren White- 4:00.32*
 
Men
 
50 Free- Zander Minano- 21.08
100 Free- Noah Vallee- 47.46
200 Free- Torsten Rau- 1:41.29
500 Free- Rau- 4:36.80
100 Free- Rau- 9:33.89*
1650 Free- Rau- 16:17.20
50 Back- Lane Austin- 23.92
100 Back- Austin- 50.24
200 Back- Rau- 1:51.43*
50 Breast- Mahmoud Elgayar- 26.16
100 Breast- Elgayar- 57.35
200 Breast- Elgayar- 2:06.57
50 Fly- Jake Simmons- 23.37
100 Fly- Pedro Terres Illescas- 50.72
200 Fly- Terres Illescas- 1:53.81
200 IM- Matthew Barrett- 1:55.75
400 IM- Jake Simmons- 4:12.42
200 Free Relay- Minano, Vallee, Austin, Elgayar- 1:24.20
400 Free Relay- Austin, Justin Fell, Elgayar, Ethan Fox- 3:08.62
200 Medley Relay- Austin, Elgayar, Terres Illescas, Minano- 1:32.55
400 Medley Relay- Austin, Elgayar, Terres Illescas, Vallee- 3:25.88*
 
*- Denotes time set in Saturday's dual at Denver.
 
Mavs' New Head Coach
 
A veteran with nearly 30 years of collegiate coaching experience, Michael "Mickey" Wender is beginning his tenure as the Mavericks' Head Swimming & Diving and Triathlon teams this year after being announced as the fourth head swimming coach in the program's history in July. 
 
Wender replaced Geoff Hanson, who resigned for a similar position at Division I Southern Illinois.
 
Wender has already racked up more than 400 wins in his 27 years as a collegiate head coach, mostly recently serving at Division I Army West Point, where he coached the Black Knights from 2006-19.  He had also been the head coach at the University of Washington from 1998-2006 after a 1992-98 stint at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1992-98 and served as an Head Coach for American Samoa at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
 
Wender has developed swimmers to qualify for NCAA Division I Championship meets in every event and was named as the Patriot League Swimming Coach of the Year three times at Army West Point, most recently in 2017.  His swimmers have broken all of the existing school records at every school he coached and have earned conference championships in over 50 different events.
 
He has also produced several swimmers who ranked in the Top 100 in the world and has coached swimmers at every U.S. Olympic Trials since 2000.
 
Returning Assistants
 
Although Wender is new to CMU, he will have the aid of some experienced CMU assistants.  Logan Pearsall, who has been named as the CSCAA NCAA Division II Men's Diving Coach of the Year in each of the past two years is back as the team's diving coach for his sixth season and Justin Hastings, a former CMU all-American and school record holder is back from his fourth season on the CMU Coaching staff and played a major role in recruiting for this year's squad.
 
Defending Champs
 
The Mavericks will enter the 2019-20 season as the defending Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Champions on both the men's and women's side. 
 
The Maverick men broke their own 5-year old championship record for team points, scoring 1,261 to win their third conference crown in program history (2014, 2017).  The Mavericks won 16 individual vents and finished 320 points ahead of runner-up Oklahoma Baptist.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick women relied on their depth to score 1,019 ½ points to earn their first conference title in program history.  They won just two out of 21 individual events but had a vast number of other high finishes to defeat Oklahoma Baptist and the rest of the 9-team field by an impressive 230 ½ points.
 
Polling No. 1
 
Both Maverick teams were unanimous picks to defend their RMAC titles in 2019-20, according to the conference's preseason coaches' poll, which was announced last Friday morning.  The Maverick women received all eight possible first place votes to take the poll with 64 points.  Dixie State was picked second with 50 points while 2019 runner-up Oklahoma Baptist was tabbed third with 47 ahead of the Colorado School of Mines (43) and the rest of the nine women's teams.
 
In the men's poll, CMU's men received all four possible first place votes to take the poll with a maximum 16 points while 2019 runner-up Oklahoma Baptist was second with 12.  Oklahoma Christian and Mines tied for third with eight ahead of Adams State, re-starting their men's program this year.
 
The nine women's coaches ranked their opposition 1-8 without voting for their own squad while the five men's coaches ranked their opposition 1-4.  Wender's first place votes went to the Dixie State women and Oklahoma Baptist men.
 
Program bests
 
The Mavericks came just short of finishing in the top 10 at last year's NCAA Division II Championships for the first time in program history.  However, the Mavericks did record their best ever finishes in 2019 as the Maverick men finished 11^th while the women took 16^th.
 
About the Cougars
 
The Cougars are off to a successful start in 2019-20 after winning all of the head-to-head match-ups at the Intermountain Shootout.
 
In 2018-19, the Cougar men finished third at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships with 673 points while the women finished fourth with 525 ½ points.
 
Freshmen Tyler Edlefsen and Katie McBratney were named as the MPSF Athletes of the Week for their efforts at the Intermountain Shootout.  McBratney won three events (200 breast, 400 IM and 200 IM) and placed second in two others (100 breast, 100 IM).  Edlefsen won the 400 IM, 1650 free and 200 breast and placed second in the 200 IM and 500 Free.
 
The Last Time in Provo
 
The Maverick men also competed at BYU last year for an Oct. 12, 2018 dual.  They won six events but dropped the dual 168-124.  Ammar Hassan won both the 1 and 3-meter diving events with NCAA Championship scores.  In the swimming events, Torsten Rau (1000 free), Justin Fell (100 fly), Matthew Barrett (200 IM) and the 200 free relay squad all claimed victories.
 
Friday's dual will mark the first time that the Mavericks women have ever competed in Provo.
 
Road stretch of a home-friendly schedule
 
Friday's dual continues the Mavs' lone road stretch of the entire season in what is a very home friendly schedule overall.  The Mavericks will also be at Western (women only) and Adams State on Oct. 24 and 25, respectively.  They then compete at the Air Force Duals on Nov. 1 before returning home to prepare for the A3 Performance Invitational, which they will host from Nov. 20-24.
 
That meet, which will include lone course time trials on the final day, will be CMU's last of 2019.
 
In 2020, the Mavericks will open with a 2-day home dual against Mines and the Dixie State women on Jan. 10-11 and take on the Western women again on Jan. 18.
 
The Mavericks will then host the RMAC Championships for the first time since 2017 from Feb. 12-14 and will have another set of long course time trials on Feb. 15.
 
CMU's lone road trip in 2020 will be to the Mar. 10-14 NCAA Division II National Championships.
 
Up Next
 
Both Maverick teams will begin Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference duals next week.  The Maverick women will compete at Western next Thursday (Oct. 24) before the men join them for duals at Adams State on Friday, Oct. 25.