PROVO, Utah— The Colorado Mesa University women's swimming and diving team combined for eight NCAA Division II Championship qualifying times and six event wins but came up just a single point shy of downing Division I BYU in a Friday dual at the Cougars' Richards Building Pool.
The Mavericks, who also set a total of ten new Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference times in the 11 swimming events contested on the day, went 1-2 in three events in what was arguably their best overall dual-meet effort in recent memory, despite falling agonizingly short of claiming their first dual win over a Division I win since 2016, 122-121.
Highlights were plentiful as
Lily Borgenheimer again lowered her own school-record with a NCAA Division II leading and Championship automatic qualifying altitude-adjusted time of two minutes, 11.17 seconds to win the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:12.37.
Fellow junior
Robyn Naze also won both the 500 and 1000 free, setting a provisional qualifying time in the latter. Meanwhile, freshman
Katerina Matoskova set two "B" cut times, winning the 200 free. She was also one of three Mavericks to set national championship provisional qualifying marks in the 200 back joining freshman Elsa Huesbsch and sophomore
Lauren White, who also had a pair of national qualifying lead-off splits to book-end the meet.
White,
Maddie Pressler, who set a RMAC-leading 100 free time, Matoskova and
Kelsea Wright also won the 800 free relay to cap the evening.
Things got off to a great start as White, Borgenheimer, Pressler and
Logan Anderson extended the Mavs' RMAC lead in the 400 medley relay as they finished second in 3:49.28 (3:48.88-adjusted). White's 100 backstroke split of 56.29 (56.19-adjusted) seconds also leads the RMAC and was under the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 56.42.
Naze then led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 1000 free as she touched in a RMAC-leading and Division II Championship provisional qualifying time of 10:35.76 (10:24.36-adjusted).
Isabelle Hansson, the RMAC leader coming into the day, was just behind in a season-best 10:47.11 (10:35.71-adjusted).
Portia Blackert took third in 11:04.38 (10:52.98-adjusted) and now ranks fifth in the RMAC.
The Mavericks then went 1-2-4 in the 200 free as Matoskova posted an impressive time of 1:52.79 (1:51.59-adjusted) to win. That mark, which leads the RMAC also puts her sixth all-time in CMU history and will rank her as high as 13th nationally. Wright finished second in 1:56.06 (1:54.86-adjusted) and now ranks fourth in the RMAC. Anderson also finished a strong fourth in 1:57.58 (1:56.38-adjusted).
In the 50 free,
Natalie Saul (24.59) and
Anna Barjenbruch (24.91) posted season-bests to finish third and fourth, respectively.
The Mavs were also strong in the 200 IM as
Grace Payton and
Kennedy Bright both posted season-bests while finishing second and third, respectively. Payton finished in 2:08.30 (2:07.10-adjusted) to move into second on the RMAC performance list behind Borgenheimer. Bright, who now sits fourth in the RMAC was clocked in 2:09.88 (2:08.68-adjusted).
After the first diving break, Hansson extended her RMAC lead in the 200 fly as she finished in 2:08.37 (2:07.17-adjusted) to take second place. Naze was less than a second behind to finish third in 2:09.27 (2:08.07-adjusted) and now ranks second in the RMAC.
Bella Walters also ranks in the RMAC's top five as she finished fifth in 2:13.09 (2:11.89-adjusted).
The Mavs were also strong in the 100 free as Pressler extended her RMAC lead after placing second in 52.96 (51.96-adjusted). Wright and Barjenbruch tied for third with each touching in 53.29 seconds (53.19-adjusted). They are now tied for second in the RMAC on the RMAC performance list.
CMU's deepest effort of the day then came in the 200 back as Huebsch claimed her first collegiate win in a RMAC-leading time of 2:02.02 (2:00.82-adjusted), easily eclipsing the NCAA "B" cut standard of 2:02.88, even without the 1.2-second altitude adjustment. She will rank as high as sixth nationally this season and moved into the No. 4 spot in Maverick history. Matoskova was just a tenth of a second behind in 2:02.12 (2:00.92-adjsuted) and now sits sixth in program history with her "B" cut time. White, who had a career-best time of 1:59.44 to win the 2020 RMAC title finished fourth in 2:03.88 (2:02.68-adjusted), setting her second NCAA qualifying time of the night.
Naze then turned in her second RMAC-pacing and time of the meet in the 500 free as she touched first in 5:11.54 (5:06.54-adjusted). Blackert (5:25.05) and
Delaney Kidd (5:27.74) also scored with third and fourth place finishes.
Following the second diving break, Borgenheimer broke her own school-record in the 200 breast to win by nearly six full seconds. Bright finished fourth in 2:25.04 (2:23.84) and moved into the No. 2 spot in the RMAC. Her altitude adjusted time is also a new career-best and solidified her No. 9 position in program history for the discipline.
In the final event of the night, the Mavs held on for victory in the 800 free relay as White, Pressler, Matoskova and Wright posted a time of 7:36.71 (7:31.91-adjusted). That time leads the RMAC by nearly 20 seconds. White led off the quartet in 1:54.17 (1:52.97-adjusted), which meets the NCAA "B" cut standard of 1:53.09. Wright turned in an anchor relay split of 1:53.52 as well.
On the diving boards,
Natalya Dahlke and
Ali Lange each claimed a sixth and seventh place finish.
The Mavericks will look to take their momentum into their final scheduled dual meet of the season on Saturday morning at the University of Utah, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
