GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Nearly a month after they normally would have started, the Colorado Mesa University women's swimming and diving team will begin their 2020-21 season on Saturday when they host Western Colorado University in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference dual in the El Pomar Natatorium.
Action begins at 11 a.m.
 
A basic live stream (natural sound only) of the swimming events can be accessed at the link above.
 
Live results will also be available throughout the meet.
 
Meet Details/Scoring
 
Saturday's dual will be contested in a 16-event format, beginning and ending with relay events.  A dozen individual swimming events as well as competition off both the 1 and 3-meter diving boards will also be held.  The complete schedule can be found below.
 
The traditional NCAA dual-meet scoring format (9-4-3-2-1-0 for individual events, 11-4-2-0 for relay events) will be used.  Teams can only score three individuals and two relays in each event and individual athletes are limited to scoring in four total events, three of which can be individual disciplines.
 
Saturday's meet was originally scheduled to be a triangular along with the Colorado School of Mines and would have also included men's competition.  However, the Orediggers will not be attending.  Because, Western only has a women's program, the Maverick men will conduct time trials during their normal Friday afternoon practice.
 
1.200 Medley Relay
2.1000 Freestyle
3.200 Freestyle
4.100 Backstroke
5.100 Breaststroke
6.200 Butterfly
7.50 Freestyle
8.1m Diving
9.100 Freestyle
10.200 Backstroke
11.200 Breaststroke
12.500 Freestyle
13.100 Butterfly
14.3m Diving
15.200 IM
16.400 Freestyle Relay
 
Three-peat favorites
 
The Mavericks begin 2020-21 as big favorites to win their third consecutive RMAC title.  After setting a championship scoring record of 1,171 ½ points to claim the 2019-20 RMAC Championship title by 419 ½ points, the Mavericks received all eight possible first place votes to top this year's RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.  The Mavericks had 49 points in the poll, which asked all eight women's coaches to rank their opposition 1-7 without voting for their own team. 
 
Mines received Maverick Coach Mickey Wender's first place vote and were picked second with 42 points.  Western Colorado was picked fifth with 42 points.
 
The Maverick men, who plan to begin their season next week, were also picked to three-peat, receiving all four possible first place votes and 16 points.
 
Starting 20-21 at 22
 
The Mavericks will enter Saturday's dual riding a streak of 22 consecutive RMAC dual meet victories, a streak that dates back nearly five years to Jan. 22, 2016, when the Mavericks defeated Western, 155-144.
 
The latest victory also came against the Mountaineers as CMU celebrated their 2020 Senior Day with a 193-97 win back on Jan. 18.
 
The Mavericks went 6-0 in RMAC dual meets last season and in 2017-18 while going 5-0 in 2018-19.  They were also 4-0 in 2016-17 and sport an impressive 59-7-1 all-time RMAC dual meet mark, good for an .888 winning percentage.
 
Series History
 
The Mavericks are 15-1 against Western Colorado since the Mountaineers started a program in 2012.  CMU has won nine straight duals in the series and are a perfect 8-0 against the Mountaineers at home.
 
Western's lone win came five years ago on Oct. 30, 2015 in Gunnison.
 
Maverick Coach Mickey Wender, who begins his second year as CMU's Head Coach, is 2-0 against the Mountaineers in dual meets.
 
The Last Time We Met
 
As mentioned earlier, the Mavericks' last faced Western in a dual meet on Jan. 10, celebrating their Senior Day with a convincing 193-97 win.  The Mavericks posted 12 official event wins and had the fastest time in three of the other four to cap their season with a perfect 6-0 RMAC record while posting a 6-5 overall dual meet record.  All five losses were to NCAA Division I foes.
 
CMU, which exhibitioned the final three events, had three 2-event individual winners in the dual in Brittany Dixon, Samantha White, two of CMU's six seniors who were recognized before the meet, and sophomore Robyn Naze.
 
Lots of Firepower returning
 
The Mavericks lost just six seniors from last year's RMAC Championship record setting squad and return a lot of firepower to the pool in 2020-21, led by a crew of six returning First Team CSCAA All-Americans in Kennedy Bright, Davy Brown, Sarah Fillerup, Ali Lange, Maddie Pressler and Lauren White.  Logan Anderson, Bret Congdon and Noel Scott also earned honorable mention all-America honors in the 200 free relay along with White.
 
Brown, who won the 200-yard individual medley title, was named as the RMAC Freshman of the Year and is one of five defending RMAC individual event champions on the Mavs' roster in 2020-21.  Congdon (50 Free), Bella Walters (200 Fly), White (200 Back) and Anderson (100 IM) are also returning individual event champions.  The Mavericks also return 11 of the combined 12 relay legs from their three conference-winning relay squads (200 Medley, 400 Medley, 400 Free), including Pressler, Natalie Saul Noel Scott. 
 
2019 All-American Grace Payton also returns.
 
Brittany Dixon and Samantha White are the only 2020 All-Americans who do not return after graduating this spring.
 
Four Transfers
 
In addition to seven freshman, the Mavericks also welcome four talented transfers from other NCAA Division II institutions to the roster in 2020-21, three of whom are national championship qualifiers. 
 
That list includes Lily Borgenheimer, a 3-time CSCAA All-American and 2019 NCAA Division II runner-up in the 200 breast while at Minnesota State, and Rylee Daniels, a native of Eaton, Colorado who helped Delta State (Miss.) qualify for the national meet in the 200 free relay in 2019.

Former RMAC rivals Portia Blackert and Kelsea Wright, who have transferred from Dixie State, will also be in Mavericks suits this year.  Blackert was a 4-event finalist as a freshman at last year's RMAC Championships and will have good memories of the El Pomar Natatorium after earning a pair of Second Team All-RMAC honors in 2020, when CMU hosted the meet.  Wright was a national qualifier in the 100, 200 and 500 free as Dixie's MVP in each of the last two years.  She was the Trailblazers' record holder in both the 200 and 500 free and numerous relay events and earned All-RMAC honors in both her seasons with Dixie State, which is now in the Division I ranks.
 
More about the Coaching Staff
 
A veteran with nearly 30 years of collegiate coaching experience, Michael "Mickey" Wender is beginning his second season as the Mavericks' Head Swimming & Diving and Triathlon Coach.
 
Once again, he will be assisted by Justin Hastings, who serves as the program's recruiting coordinator. 
 
Colin Zeng (more below) is the team's new diving coach.  Former Mavericks Noah Beaver, Tarek Farouk and Noah Macomber are also serving as volunteer assistant coaches while current diver Kaylee Eakman is also serving as a student intern for the Mavericks.
 
In his first year with the Mavericks, Wender led the Maverick swimming and diving teams to Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles as the CMU women set a conference-championship point scoring record.  Those teams also combined to earn more than 100 All-RMAC honors and Wender was personally named as the RMAC Co-Men's Coach of the Year.
 
The Mavericks also qualified the most comprehensive team to the NCAA Division II National Championships, which were canceled on the second day of the meet after COVID-19 concerns and later had 19 different student-athletes combined to earn CSCAA (College Swimming Coaches Association of America) All-America honors.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick triathlon team won a second straight West Regional qualifier title before finishing fourth at the USA Triathlon Women's Collegiate National Championships.
 
Academically, the Mavericks also shined with 30 swim and dive team members earning CSCAA Scholar All-America honors, including a national-leading 18 women.  Three triathletes were also similarly honored by the CTCA (College Triathlon Coaches Association).
  
Wender has racked up more than 400 wins in his 28 total years as a collegiate head coach.  Prior to coming to CMU, Wender had served 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.  Additionally, Wender served as the head coach for American Samoa at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. 
  
He began his collegiate coaching career at Cal State University Northridge, where he assisted NCAA Coach of the Decade Pete Accardy from 1990-92 after serving as the coach at Sachem (N.Y.) High School the previous year. 
 
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 previous 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. 
 
A personal triathlon enthusiast, he completed two Ironman (1993, 1994) and was a Top 10 finisher in the 1996 Eco-challenge, known as the World's Toughest Athletic Event.
 
New Diving Coach
 
The Mavericks have a new head diving coach in Colin Zeng, who won three NCAA Division I national titles and 10 all-America honors in his time as a student-athlete at both Tennessee and Ohio State.  He was the graduate assistant diving coach at Iowa for the past-year plus before joining the Maverick coaching staff earlier this month.

Zeng, a native of Fujian, China, who went to high school in California, will have a talented stable of divers to work with in 2020-21, including returning all-American Ali Lange and All-RMAC performers Natalya Dahlke and Joelynn Harris, the program's 1-meter record holder amongst others on the women's side.
 
About the Mountaineers
 
Saturday's meet will be the second of the season for Western Colorado, which comes in with a 2-0 dual meet mark.  The Mountaineers defeated CSU Pueblo, 152-117 and Adams State, 189-64 during a triangular in Pueblo on Oct. 10.  They won eight of the 15 events against the ThunderWolves and Grizzlies. 
 
In 2019-20, the Erik Matheson coached Mountaineers went 7-4 in dual meets, including a 6-4 mark against RMAC foes.  They finished fifth at the RMAC Championships and finished fourth at the A3 Performance Invitational, which CMU hosts annually.
 
Matheson returns national qualifier in Savannah Tice, a senior who holds the Mountaineer school-records of 55.25 and 1:59.00 in the 100 and 200 back, respectively.   She is also a school-record holder on numerous relay teams and won the 100 back while finishing second behind the Mavs' Lauren White in the 200 back at the 2020 RMAC Championships.

Up Next

The Maverick women will travel to Greeley on Thursday (Nov. 5) for a dual at Division I Northern Colorado.  No diving will be contested in that dual, which begins at 2 p.m.  Spectators will not be allowed.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick men will head to Provo, Utah as they begin their season with a dual at BYU on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.