GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick swimming and diving teams won six more gold medals, tallied 28 NCAA Division II Championship qualifying marks and an exhibition conference record to close in on probable Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title defenses here at the El Pomar Natatorium.
 
Torsten Rau, Lane Austin, Pedro Terres Illescas and the 800-yard freestyle relay team, which included Rau and Terres Illescas, all won for the Maverick men, who now lead by 189 ½ points over the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers through three of the four days of the meet.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick women received event wins from freshman Bella Walters and senior Brittany Dixon as they increased their team-scoring lead to 338 ½ points over Mines. 
 
CMU's women now have 918 ½ points and are within striking distance of the RMAC Championship record of 1,092, with five events remaining.  CMU's men have 833 with six events to be contested on Saturday.
 
After qualifying 24 swimmers and all six possible divers for the finals in the preliminary rounds, where the Mavericks set 11 NCAA qualifying marks, the Mavericks started the evening in final style.
 
Sophomore Logan Anderson won the exhibition 100-yard individual medley event in a time of 58.92 seconds to de-throne back-to-back champion teammate Olivia DeRemer, who finished second in 59.62.  Both went under DeRemer's former RMAC Championship record of 1:00.07, set last season.  CMU's Tally Danielson also finished third in 1:01.03.
 
Meanwhile, Breck Donahue placed the same in the men's exhibition event with a time of 55.06.
 
The Mavericks then took third and fifth in the women's 500 freestyle as junior Isabelle Hansson set a career-best time of 5:06.26 while sophomore Robyn Naze touched in 5:09.40 as both went under the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 5:09.82.
 
Rau, who has already won three titles this week, including the individual 1,000-yard free on Wednesday, then raced to the win in men's race, touching in 4:32.86, good for a nearly 2 ½-second win and a NCAA provisional qualifying mark which matched his No. 2 ranking time in school history.  Logan Ellis finished sixth in 4:41.80 while Jackson Wuthrich was seventh in 4:46.88.  Justin Fell also won the consolation heat in 4:44.66 as the Mavericks scored 54 team points.
 
The Maverick women then had a fine showing in the 100 backstroke as they had four of the top five and five of the top seven finishers.  Sophomore Sarah Fillerup was second in 55.66 while freshman Lauren White (56.15) and Davy Brown (56.45) both set NCAA provisional qualifying times as well.   They all rank amongst the top six Mavericks in program history for that event.
 
Meanwhile, Maddie Pressler finished fifth in 57.07 seconds while Natalie Saul took seventh in 58.31.
 
The Maverick men then claimed their second win of the night as sophomore Lane Austin touched in 49.65 seconds to take the 100 backstroke after posting an even quicker mark of 49.52 as the top qualifier out of the preliminaries.  Nico Tscherner (52.08) and Felipe D'Orsi (52.89) also made the championship final and finished fifth and seventh, respectively.
 
Senior Samantha White then turned in a runner-up finish in the women's 100 breaststroke.  She set a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:03.76, just off her own school-record of 1:03.38, while freshman teammate Sydney Dolloff-Holt finished seventh in 1:06.21.
 
The Maverick men also fared well in that discipline as Mahmoud Elgayar and Matthew Barrett claimed the silver and bronze with NCAA provisional qualifying times of 55.22 and 55.58 seconds, respectively.  Elgayar was out-touched by a single one-hundredth of a second while Barrett turned in a career-best to improve his No. 3 position on the Maverick all-time charts, one spot behind Elgayar.
 
Freshman Ethan Fox was also in the championship final and took seventh in 57.08 seconds after racing to a time of 56.64 in the preliminaries.
 
Walters then controlled the women's 200 butterfly from the start and finished in 2:07.12, winning by 1.54 seconds.  Naze also finished fourth in 2:10.60 while Candice Rosen touched sixth in 2:10.79.
 
In the men's event, Terres Illescas defended his RMAC crown touching in 1:48.13 seconds, well under the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 1:51.33.  Junior Tucker Adams (1:52.67) and sophomore Jake Simmons (1:52.83) also finished strong taking fourth and fifth as the Mavericks racked up 49 quick team points.   
 
The Mavericks then dominated the women's 1-meter diving competition as Brittany Dixon won her fourth career conference crown while completing the 2020 double.  She was in fifth place after the preliminaries both stormed back to win with 444.20 points, edging teammate Jolynn Harris (440.65), who was the top qualifier out of the preliminaries with 450.25 points.  Natalya Dahlke (414.95), Ali Lange (404.10), Kaylee Ekman (402.45) and Jaclyn Santiago (390.95) all set NCAA qualifying scores as well as the Mavericks also took fourth through seventh place as CMU scored 91 points in that event alone.
 
The Mavericks then capped the evening with the 800 free relays.  The Maverick women finished second in 7:35.28 as Pressler turned in a NCAA provisional qualifying lead-off split of 1:52.91. 
 
Rau and Terres Illescas then joined with Justin Fell and Noah Beaver to win the men's event in 6:45.66.
 
CMU also won both "B" heats during the preliminary session.