GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— it has often been said that relays wins meet.
 
The Colorado Mesa University Swimming & Diving teams will hope that holds true this week as the Mavericks won all four contested relays with school-record setting times.  The Mavs also set a trio of meet records to build first day leads in the A3 Performance Invitational, which got underway Wednesday evening here at the El Pomar Natatorium.
 
The Maverick men won all three events of the evening, two with meet-record setting relay times, and set five combined NCAA provisional qualifying times to open an 11-point (195-184) lead over the Colorado School of Mines and the rest of the field.
 
CMU's women also took both relays while setting a 200-yard free relay meet record and hold an early 17-point (166-149) cushion over Mines and the rest of the 8-team field despite suffering a "B" relay disqualification in the opening event.
 
In the 200 medley relay, which started the meet, the Mavericks started strong as Sarah Fillerup, Samantha White, Candice Rosen and Bret Congdon combined to win in a time of one minute, 43.71 seconds, nearly two seconds quicker than second place Dixie State.
 
The Mavericks then placed three individual swimmers in the top six of the 1000 freestyle, which was the lone individual event of the night.  Abbey Selin led the group, placing second in 10:38.25.  Fellow sophomore Robyn Naze was third in 10:41.27 while junior Isabelle Hansson finished sixth in 10:47.88.
 
Mines' Mia Wood broke her own meet record, posting a fine NCAA "B" Cut time of 10:11.78 to dominate the event.
 
Later, Congdon, Lauren White, Logan Anderson and Natalie Saul cruised to a time of 1:34.44 to win the 200 free relay.  That time surpassed the 2017 meet record time of 1:34.82, which Saul also anchored as a freshman, and was just off the national provisional qualifying standard of 1:34.21.  The Mavs' "B" 200 team of Abbey Desmet, Samantha White, Noel Scott and Maddie Pressler finished third in 1:36.12.
 
The Mavs were even more dominant in the men's events as they placed first and third in both relays while going 1-3-4 in the 1,000 free in between.
 
In the 200 medley relay, Lane Austin, Mahmoud Elgayar, Pedro Terres Illescas and Zander Minano combined for a time of 1:28.00 to blow last year's meet record time of 1:29.54 out of the water while easily going under the national qualifying standard of 1:28.85. 
 
Meanwhile, the Mavs' "B" all-underclassman team of Alex Bruce, Matthew Barrett, Jake Simmons and Noah Vallee touched in 1:31.02 to take third.
 
Later, Jackson Wuthrich won the 1,000 free in a "B" Cut time of 9:32.85.  Torsten Rau (9:38.87) and Logan Ellis (9:42.01) also set provisional qualifying times to finish third and fourth, respectively.
 
In the final race of the night, Minano, Elgayar, Austin and Noah Vallee finished the 200 free relay in 1:20.54, well under the meet-record time of 1:21.31, set by the Mavs in 2017, and the national qualifying standard of 1:21.20.
 
CMU's secondary quartet of Justin Fell, Tyler Cotton, Noah Beaver and Bailey Usey finished third in 1:22.78, just 0.03 of Mines' runner-up "A" team.
 
Thursday's portion of the meet will begin with a preliminary heat session at 10 a.m.  The evening finals session, which will include the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 Free, 400 Medley relay and men's 3-meter diving competition, will commence at 5 p.m.