PROVO, Utah— In his first meet of the season, Colorado Mesa University senior
Ammar Hassan double-qualified for the NCAA Division II National Championships as he and double-winner
Torsten Rau led the Maverick men's swimming and diving team to a strong effort in a Friday dual at Division I BYU.
The Mavericks also received an event win from
Lane Austin but dropped the dual, their first of the season, to the Cougars, 150-93.
Hassan, a 4-time NCAA Division II Champion, scored 327.00 points on six dives on the 1-meter board as the Mavericks won the diving competition while going 1-3-4.
Chandler Livingston finished third with 260.60 points while
Tanner Belliston took fourth with 244.40 points.
Earlier, Hassan took second on the 3-meter board with another NCAA qualifying score of 310.95 points. Belliston (288.90) and Livingston (278.00) also turned in strong performances to finish fourth and fifth, but fell just short of the NCAA qualifying standard of 295 points.
Meanwhile, Rau swept the distance freestyle events winning both the 500 and 1000-yard freestyle in RMAC-leading times. He finished the 1000 in 9:49.88 (9:38.48-altitude adjusted) to extend his RMAC lead. Teammate
Logan Ellis was second in 10:01.14 (9:49.74-adjusted) and solidified his No. 2 position on the RMAC performers' list behind Rau.
In the 500, Rau won in 4:41.48 (4:36.48-adjusted) to take the RMAC lead. Ellis finished third in 4:51.11 (4:46.11-adjusted) and moved up a spot to seventh in the RMAC for that discipline.
Minutes earlier, Austin led a 1-2-4 Maverick finish in the 200 back. He touched in 1:52.62 (1:51.42-adjusted) to extend his RMAC lead.
Makai Duport was second in 1:55.35 (1:54.15-adjusted) to lower his No. 3 conference-ranked season-best time.
Breck Donahue was fourth in 1:56.83 (1:55.63-adjusted).
Austin also had a good lead-off split of 49.67 seconds in the 400 medley relay as he,
Mahmoud Elgayar,
Treven Wertz and
Ben Sampson finished second in 3:19.74.
Elgayar also took third in both the 200 IM (1:53.90) and 200 breast (2:05.00). Sampson was third in the 100 free with a time of 46.15 seconds (46.05-adjusted) to move into the No. 5 position in the RMAC.
The same can be said about
Jake Simmons, who had a strong second place finish in the 200 fly. He finished in 1:55.22 (1:54.02-adjusted).
Tucker Adams also had a good time of 1:56.42 (1:55.22-adjusted) to stand sixth in the conference. Simmons also moved into fifth on the RMAC performance list in the 200 breast with a time of 2:11.25 (2:10.05-adjusted).
Elsewhere, Sampson finished fourth in the 200 free (1:45.95) while
Felipe D'Orsi did the same in the 50 free (21.33), just ahead of Duport, who also scored a team point with a fifth place time of 21.58.
Rau, Austin, D'Orsi and
Tanner Baldry combined for a third place time of 7:11.01 (7:06.21-adjsuted) in the 800 free relay to rank third in the conference.
The Mavericks will contest their second dual of the weekend on Saturday at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
NOTE: This recap was revised on Jan. 23, 2021 with updated diving results, which also changed the final team score.
