COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University swimming & diving teams swept all four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference weekly awards, which were announced Wednesday afternoon by conference officials.
Lily Borgenheimer and
Torsten Rau were named as the RMAC Swimmers of the Week for the women and men, respectively.
Tanner Belliston and
Jolynn Harris received the RMAC Diver of the Week accolades. The awards were based on the Mavericks' efforts at last weekend's set of meets at Air Force.
Borgenheimer, named as the RMAC Swimmer of the Week for the second time this season, had an incredible weekend that saw her win all four of her individual events with RMAC-leading times. She also setting three new school-records and the same number of NCAA Division II Championship "B" cut times at the two Air Force Quadrangular meets, which featured two NCAA Division I foes (Air Force, Northern Colorado) and RMAC-rival Colorado School of Mines. On Friday, she set new school-records and national qualifying marks in both the 100 breast (1:02.54) and the 200 IM (2:03.40). She then broke her own school-record in the 200 breast with an altitude-adjusted time of 2:13.47 on Saturday, winning that event by more than nine seconds. She also made her season-debut in the 200 free with a RMAC-leading time of 1:54.61.
With those school-record times, Borgenheimer ranks in the nation's top seven in three events (2nd-200 breast; 4th-100 breast; 7th-200 IM). She also swam the breaststroke legs on the Mavericks' 200 and 400 medley relay teams which also lead the RMAC performance lists at 1:45.49 and 3:50.58, respectively.
Competing in his first meets of the season, Rau set three RMAC-leading times while winning the 500-yard freestyle at both Air Force Tri-Meets over the weekend. He also tallied two other runner-up finishes and a third place finish. On Friday night, Rau won the 500 free (4:38.60) and placed third in the 1000 free (9:45.10) to take the RMAC lead in both. He then won the 500 free (4:38.76) while placing second in the 200 free (1:41.56) and the 200 back (1:52.65). That 200 free time leads the RMAC while his 200 back time ranks him second behind teammate
Lane Austin.
This RMAC award is the sixth weekly honor of his career.
On the diving boards, Belliston won both 3-meter diving competitions over the weekend, setting new career-best scores each time. After winning on Friday evening with a score of 272.63 points, he did even better on Saturday afternoon with another career-best score of 277.35 points. He also set a new career best 1-meter score of 251.95 points on Friday, finishing second in that event on both days while tallying 50 team points in his four total events over the weekend.
Harris, who was recognized for the second time this season and the fifth time her Maverick career, recorded three wins and an NCAA Championship qualifying mark to help lead the Mavericks in the weekend's quadrangulars. She won both the 1 and 3-meter diving events on Friday, tallying a NCAA qualifying score of 270.95 points on the 1-meter to win by more than 40 points while posting a score of 262.80 on the 3-meter. Both were season-best totals. She then won the 3-meter (239.35) again on Saturday morning while taking second place on the 1-meter (239.00), helping the Mavs win their 24th and 25th consecutive RMAC duals with team wins over Mines on each day.
The Mavericks are off this weekend before competing in duals at BYU and Utah next Friday (Jan. 22) and Saturday (Jan. 23), respectively.
