GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year Ben Sampson, Serbian newcomer Dejan Urbanek and 10-time women's all-American Lauren White all won events as the Colorado Mesa University swimming and diving teams racked up a baker's dozen (13) top-3 finishes and a pair of NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying marks to get the 2021-22 season off to a solid start on Friday evening here during day one action of the Intermountain Shootout at the Mavs' El Pomar Natatorium.
 
Hosting a 9-team women's meet, the largest of 11 all-time Intermountain Shootouts, which includes five NCAA Division I squads this year, the Mavericks currently lead four head-to-head duals and are on track to extend their RMAC dual-meet winning streak to 27 while defeating a Division I opponent head-to-head for the first time since Nov. 12, 2016.
 
CMU's women lead Division I Dixie State, 138-61 and are ahead of RMAC opponents Adams State (171-22) and CSU Pueblo (164-34) heading into Saturday's portion of the meet, which will get underway at 10 a.m.
 
Meanwhile, CMU's men currently lead three of the four head-to-head duals in the 5-team meet, holding a 105-99 lead over Division I Air Force and a commanding 171-24 lead over RMAC rival Adams State.
 
On the individual side, White and Sampson swept the 100-yard backstroke wins as White posted a time of 56.71 seconds to win by a half-second.  Sampson then followed that in the men's event with an impressive early-season and NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying time of 49.06 seconds, nearly a quarter second under the altitude-adjusted "B" standard of 49.30.  He won the event by 0.64 seconds while teammates Lane Austin (50.56) and Alex Bruce (50.90) took third and fourth, respectively.
 
Just minutes later, Urbanek blazed to a time of 22.68 seconds in the rarely-contested 50 butterfly to claim CMU's third win of the night.
 
The Mavericks also had five runner-up finishes throughout the evening, including three from the women.  White recorded the first, as she finished the 200 free in a NCAA "B" cut time of 1:53.29.
 
Lily Borgenheimer then finished the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.09, being out-touched by just 0.04 seconds while Davy Brown, competing for the first time in nearly an entire year, finished second in the 100 individual medley with a sub-minute time of 59.50 seconds.
 
Meanwhile, the women's 200 free relay team of Izzy Powers, Logan Anderson, Julie Day and White finished third in 1:36.76 to begin the night.
 
The Maverick men also had two second and two third place finishes, including another third place finish in the 200 free relay. 
 
Polish redshirt freshman Kuba Kiszczak made his Maverick debut by taking third in the 200 free with a time of 1:42.55 while the versatile Urbanek took second in the 1,000 freestyle, held just after his 50 fly win.  He finished the distance event in 9:52.46.  Fellow freshman Stef Teutsch also broke ten minutes in 9:59.49 to place fourth while 2021 RMAC Champion Gavin Anderson was fifth in 10:03.75.
 
Sampson also had a strong second place effort in the 100 IM, touching in 51.02 seconds.
 
In the 200 free relay, the first event of the night, the CMU men's quartet of Kiszczak, Sampson, Felipe D'Orsi and Austin touched in 1:22.23 to place third.
 
On the diving boards, Jolynn Harris finished fourth in the women's 3-meter (248.60) while Tanner Belliston led the Maverick men with a fifth place finish on the 1-meter (255.55 points) as the Mavericks combined to record 22 top-5 finishes overall.