USAFA, Colo.— Tanner Belliston and Torsten Rau each picked up event wins as the Colorado Mesa University Maverick men's swimming and diving team combined for ten top-3 finishes, including five runner-up efforts, on Friday evening against host Air Force and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Colorado School of Mines, here in the Falcons Cadet Natatorium.
 
The meet, which was altered to include invitational-style team scores, marked the first time that the team as whole had competed this season.  The Mavericks finished the 13-event meet in second with 218 points, edging Mines by one.  The host Falcons tallied 361 to win the meet.
 
The teams will contest another 12-event invite style meet on Saturday at noon after the Maverick women compete, starting at 9 a.m.
 
In Friday's competition, Belliston won the 3-meter diving event with 272.63 points and later finished second on the 1-meter with 217.80 points.  Meanwhile, Rau claimed the 500-yard freestyle in four minutes, 45.60 seconds to record one of the Mavs' four new 2020-21 RMAC Performance List leading times of the season.  His mark converts to 4:38.60 with the 7-second altitude adjustment.
 
Rau also set a RMAC-leading time in the 1,000 free as he finished third in 10:03.60 (9:45.10-adjusted).  Teammate Logan Ellis was fourth in that event with a time of 10:18.53 (10:00.03), which is second quickest in the RMAC thus far this season.  Ellis also finished sixth in the 500 free at 4:55.85 (4:48.85-adjusted).
 
Other RMAC-leading times came from Felipe D'Orsi, the 2019-20 RMAC Co-Freshman of the Year and Lane Austin in the 100 free and 100-back, respectively.  They both finished second.
 
D'Orsi touched in 46.14 seconds (45.99-adjusted) while Austin backstroked to a time of 49.61 (49.46-adjusted).
 
Freshman Ben Sampson also claimed a pair of finishes, completing the 50 free in 20.94 seconds, just off his RMAC-leading best of 20.77.  He then swam the third leg on CMU's 400 free relay team, which also took second in 3:04.24.  Austin, D'Orsi and Rau were the other legs on that unit.
 
In the 100 fly, Treven Wertz finished third in 50.81 seconds (50.66-adjusted) and now sits second in the RMAC behind event winner Robert Clayton of Mines.
 
Mahmoud Elgayar, who set three NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying times in the Maverick Open, a November time trial meet that saw four CMU swimmers compete in, also had a third place finish on Friday night.  He took third in the 100 breast at 57.10 and also led the Mavs with a fourth place finish in the 200 IM (1:55.86).
 
Elsewhere, Austin, Elgayar, Jake Simmons and D'Orsi finished fourth in the 200 medley relay at 1:30.95 while Tanner Baldry finished sixth in the 200 free with a time of 1:48.16.