USAF ACADEMY, Colo.— Junior
Torsten Rau and sophomore
Mahmoud Elgayar led the Colorado Mesa University men's swimming team in a Friday evening triangular split against the NCAA Division I United States Air Force Academy Falcons and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Colorado School of Mines Orediggers here at the Falcons' Cadet Natatorium.
Rau won the 1,000-yard freestyle in an improved NCAA "B" cut time of nine minutes, 48.29 seconds, which lowers to 9:29.79 with the allowable altitude adjustment. He also finished third in both the 500 free and 200 backstroke events.
Meanwhile, Elgayar won the 100 breaststroke in 57.35 seconds and anchored the Mavs' 400 free relay team to an official win in 3:07.62 to cap the night on a high note.
Noah Vallee,
Alex Bruce and
Lane Austin swam the earlier legs of that relay.
The Mavericks, now 2-5 overall and 2-0 against RMAC foes this season, also had a half-dozen runner-up finishes and the same number of third place finishes as they defeated the Orediggers, 195-99 while falling to the Falcons, 171-123. Air Force (3-3) also defeated Mines (2-3, 1-1 RMAC), 183-106 in the other leg of the team scoring battles.
The Mavericks' 200 medley relay team of Austin, Elgayar,
Zander Minano and Vallee got the night off to a good start with a time of 1:32.40.
Austin then came back to take second in the 100 back with a time of 50.81 seconds before Elgayar claimed his individual win ahead of teammate
Matthew Barrett, who finished fourth in a season-best 58.34 seconds.
Elgayar later finished second over 200 yards in 2:08.54 while Barrett also took fourth in that event with a time of 2:13.18.
Freshman
Alex Bruce then finished second in the 200 butterfly at 1:55.86 before Austin came out of the first diving break to finish third in the 100 free at 48.05 seconds.
Bruce was also second in the 200 back at 1:55.39, a tenth ahead of Rau, who touched in 1:55.49. The German then completed the 500 free in 4:51.09.
CMU's
Jake Simmons later turned in a season-best time of 51.33 to take second in the 100 fly while
Nico Tscherner finished third in in the 200 IM at 1:59.22 ahead of
Ethan Fox (2:01.84) and
Justin Fell (2:02.93).
On the diving boards,
Noah Luna finished third in both events. He scored 262.05 points on six dives off the 1-meter before tallying 281.70 on the 3-meter.
The Mavericks are now off until Nov. 20, when they will begin hosting the A3 Performance Invite.
