GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks won early and often and surged into team leads after the first day of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships, which got underway Wednesday here at the El Pomar Natatorium.
 
Hosting the meet for the first time in three years, the Mavericks men and women combined to win seven of the nine events contested on the opening day.  They posted wins in all four 200-yard medley relay races and posted a 1-2-3-4-5 sweep in the men's 200 individual medley and a 1-2-3-4-6 near sweep in the women's 3-meter diving competition, to highlight an impressive evening.
 
The Maverick women won four of their five events and scored 313 ½ team points, more than double second-place Colorado School of Mines (151), led by a winning and pool-record 1,000 freestyle win from Mia Wood. 
 
The Maverick men tallied 221 points while winning three of the four opening-day events while opening a 68 ½-point cushion over second place Oklahoma Baptist (152 ½), which is three points ahead of Mines (149 ½).
 
On a grander scale, the Mavericks also combined for 20 NCAA qualifying marks, throughout the day including six in the preliminary rounds.
 
After qualifying 14 total swimmers and all six possible divers for the finals earlier in the day the Maverick women got out to a strong start in the evening session as junior Isabelle Hansson posted the second fastest altitude-adjusted 1,000-yard time in program history (10:28.15) to finish second behind Wood, who broke a 4-year old pool record with a NCAA automatic qualifying clocking of 10:06.14, bettering Lindenwood's Alecia McGillivray's former standard 10:08.67. 
 
Hansson and sophomore Robyn Naze, who finished third in 10:32.87, were both under the NCAA "B" cut standard of 10:35.91 for CMU.
 
The Mavericks then turned in a 1-2 sweep in the men's 1,000 free as junior Torsten Rau claimed his first conference title with a time of 9:32.28 to edge teammate Logan Ellis (9:34.21), last year's winner.  Both men set NCAA "B" cut times as Ellis moved up a spot to fifth in program history while Rau remains second in school-history.
 
The Mavericks then dominated the 200-yard IM's as freshman Davy Brown claimed the women's race in a NCAA "B" cut time of 2:05.50 to move up a position to second in school-history.  The Mavericks had five of the eight finalists in that event as Grace Payton, Sarah Fillerup, Kennedy Bright and Candice Rosen took fifth through eighth, respectively.  Freshman Sydney Dolloff-Holt also won the consolation heat as the Mavericks scored 79 points in that event alone.
 
The Maverick men were even more impressive as they took each of the top five and six of the top eight spots to score 93 team points.  CMU also had five different men set NCAA provisional qualifying times, led by sophomore Matthew Barrett, who won his first RMAC title in 1:50.21 to move up four spots to third in program history.  Jake Simmons (1:50.67), Ethan Fox (1:51.92), Mahmoud Elgayar (1:52.06) and Justin Fell (1:52.21) all set NCAA "B" cut times as part of the sweep while Nico Tscherner finished eighth in 1:53.67.
 
Maverick freshman Bret Congdon then sprinted to the win in the women's 50 free, posting a time of 23.64 seconds, third fastest in program history.  She and Natalie Saul, who tied for third at 24.02, both eclipsed the NCAA qualifying standard of 24.03.  Maddie Pressler also won the consolation heat in 24.13 seconds for the Mavericks.
 
Another freshman in Felipe D'Orsi placed fourth to lead the Maverick men in the meet's quickest race.  He touched in 20.67 seconds to eclipse the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 20.75 and move into eighth in program history.  D'Orsi was the only Maverick in the championship final although Noah Vallee did win the consolation heat in 20.97 seconds. 
 
On the diving boards, Maverick senior Brittany Dixon won her third career RMAC title, scoring 439.60 points.  Jolynn Harris took second at 428.15 while Natalya Dahlke made it a Maverick sweep of the medals with a score of 404.20 points.  Ali Lange, who joined Dixon as an NCAA qualifier in the afternoon preliminaries, finished fourth with 395.95 points after scoring 423.70 in the afternoon.    Kaylee Eakman (381.95) and Jaclyn Santiago (339.10) also finished sixth and eighth, respectively, as the Mavericks scored 92 team points.
 
All of that set the stage for the 200 medley relays, which capped the night. 
 
CMU's quartet of Fillerup, Sam White, Noel Scott and Congdon won the women's championship in 1:43.65 after CMU's "B" squad of Brown, Dolloff-Holt, Rosen and Saul won the "B" heat to place tenth overall in 1:45.39.
 
Meanwhile, Lane Austin, Elgayar, Pedro Terres Illescas and D'Orsi won the men's 200 medley relay in 1:28.31, a NCAA qualifying mark.  CMU's "B" squad of Tscherner, Barrett, Jake Simmons and Vallee had won the "B" heat in 1:31.63, minutes earlier.
 
Action will resume on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. with another preliminary session.