GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University junior
Mahmoud Elgayar turned in a trio of NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying times, including a national-leading mark in the 200-yard breaststroke, to highlight the Maverick Open, a series of swimming time trials held Saturday morning at the Mavericks' El Pomar Natatorium. The mini-meet featured four Maverick men as well as three others from the University of Wyoming and was a pseudo-replacement for the COVID-19 related cancelation of the A3 Performance Invitational, which was slated to run from Thursday-Saturday.
It was the first meet of the season for the Maverick men.
Team scores were not kept although the teams split the two races where they went head-to-head.
Seven Maverick women also swam in a variety of time trails. However, those times will not count for NCAA qualifying purposes as the women's portion of the meet is not considered a bona fide competition because only CMU swimmers competed.
In his first of four swims during the meet, Elgayar, the 2019-20 RMAC Swimmer of the Year, posted a time of 2:00.46 in the 200 breast, which with the altitude conversion of 1.2 seconds, puts him atop the NCAA Division II top times report at 1:59.26, well under the NCAA "B" qualifying standard of 2:00.87.
He then came back to post a time of 54.96 seconds (54.86-adjusted) in the 100 breaststroke to rank fourth nationally in that event. Wyoming's Grant Sloan was second in 57.79 seconds.
Later, Elgayar posted a mark of 1:51.67 (1:50.47-adjusted) in the 200 IM and now ranks fifth in Division II.
Sloan won the 50 free in 20.82 seconds in what was the other multi-team race. Freshman
Ben Sampson was second in 21.03 seconds but later came back to win a time trial in 20.77 seconds, which puts him tenth in program history. Elgayar was second in that meet-closing sprint with a time of 21.23 while
George Durin finished in 21.42 seconds.
Makai Duport also posted a time of 21.54 seconds in the initial 50 free race and finished the 100 back in 52.34.
On the women's side, the Mavericks also posted some impressive efforts, led by
Lily Borgenheimer's 100 breast mark of 1:02.20, which if contested under official conditions, would have smashed the CMU school-record of 1:03.28 and been well under the NCAA provisional altitude-adjusted qualifying standard of 1:04.18. Borgenheimer, who did break the Mavs' 200-yard mark in the season-opening women's only dual against Western Colorado, also won the 50 free in 24.34 seconds.
Earlier,
Katerina Matoskova won the 200 free in 1:53.22, finishing ahead of
Maddie Pressler (1:54.44),
Kelsea Wright (1:55.13).
Alexa Warner also posted a time of 2:02.57 in a separate heat. Matoskova's mark would have ranked her sixth in program history and would have reached the "B" cut if it were posted in an official meet.
Junior
Anna Barjenbruch, who moved to the varsity team this fall after competing for the CMU club team for the past two years, won the first of two 50 free time trials at the beginning of the season in 24.47 seconds and later came back to win the 100 free in 52.71 seconds.
Grace Payton then finished the 100 fly in 58.24 seconds.
Warner also posted times of 26.27 and 56.24 seconds in the 50 and 100 free, respectively.
Pressler was second in the second 50 free swim with a time of 24.54 seconds and was followed by Barjenbruch, Payton (25.06), Wright (25.18), Matoskova (25.83) and Warner.
