GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University swimming and diving teams set new school records in each of the first three and nine overall disciplines while winning all six events contested during an incredibly fast opening night of the A3 Performance Invitational, which got underway Wednesday here at the El Pomar Natatorium.
 
The Mavericks also set five meet records and a pool record while posting 12 NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying times, including five that lead the country. 
 
In the process, they also opened up leads on both the men's and women's side of the team scoring chase.
 
The Maverick women, ranked a program-best seventh nationally according to last week's CSCAA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, scored 204 points in the first three events and lead the No. 22 Colorado School of Mines Orediggers by 55.  Division I Northern Arizona, which did not enter any swimmers in the 1,000-yard freestyle is third in the 6-team meet with 130 points. 
 
Meanwhile, the No. 6 Maverick men went 1-2-3-4 in the men's 1,000 free and 1-2 in both relay events to open up a 221-203 lead over No. 19 Mines, which racked up big points in the 1,000 free thanks to having nine of the 14 contestants.
 
The fireworks started from the very start as the women's 200-yard medley relay team of Lauren White, Lily Borgenheimer, Davy Brown and Izzy Powers combined to post a time of one minute, 42.47 seconds, breaking the former Maverick mark of 1:43.07, set at last season's NCAA Division II National Championships.
 
The Maverick men's quartet of Ben Sampson, Mahmoud Elgayar, Dejan Urbanek and Felipe D'Orsi then posted a time of 1:27.04, breaking the former 2019 meet and school-record time of 1:28.00 by nearly a second.  The time is also the fastest in Division II this season by 1.37 seconds.
 
The Maverick women rank third with their time while Sampson's 50 back split of 21.75 set a new Maverick standard as well.
 
The records continued to fall in the first individual event as Maverick redshirt sophomore Amelia Kinnard, a transfer from Division I Eastern Michigan, posted a time of 10:21.99 to win by 5.45 seconds.  With the altitude conversion, Kinnard's time will lower to 10:10.59, well under Robyn Naze's mark of 10:13.91, set en-route to Honorable Mention all-America honors at last season's national championships in Birmingham, Alabama.  Kinnard will rank as high as second nationally this season.
 
Naze, swimming for the first time this season, was third in 10:39.15 on Wednesday night as Mines' Meghan Slowey also set a NCAA "B" cut time of 10:27.44 to take second.  CMU's Kelsea Wright also finished under 11 minutes, taking sixth places in 10:55.95.
 
In the men's 1,000, CMU's redshirt freshman Gavin Anderson got under the NCAA qualifying standard and won the event with a time of 9:36.20, more than three seconds faster than his 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference winning mark.  In the process, Anderson moved up a spot to seventh in program history with this altitude-adjusted mark of 9:24.80, which will rank him as high as sixth nationally.
 
True freshman teammates Jacob Troescher (9:38.01) and Stef Teutsch (9:43.00) also moved into the top-10 of Maverick history with the available 11.4-second altitude-adjustment.  The Mavs' Austin Mondello finished fourth in 9:46.50.
 
The brief night then concluded with the 800 yard freestyle relays.
 
The Maverick women's quartet of White, Wright, Katerina Matoskova and Ruby Bottai blazed to a time of 7:29.22, well under the former pool (7:33.93) and meet (7:38.89) records.  The NCAA qualifying time, which lowers to 7:24.42 with the altitude conversion, leads the country by nearly seven seconds.
 
It was also lower than the former school record of 7:26.22, set at last year's RMAC Championship meet. 
 
White, who also broke her own individual school record with a 200 free lead-off split of 1:50.38 (1:49.18-converted) to increase her national performance list lead, and Matoskova were also on that RMAC winning team.
 
White had also set a new 50 back school-record of lead-off split of 25.69 at the start of the medley relay.
 
Northern Arizona's "A" and "B" teams as well as the CMU B squad of Logan Anderson, Borgenheimer, Powers and Kinnard were also under the former 800 free relay meet record, set in 2019.  Anderson set a NCAA qualifying lead-off split of 1:54.00.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick men's squad of Matheus Laperriere, Kuba Kiszczak, Logan Ellis and John Walgast then smashed the meet record with a time of 6:39.98.  Laperriere also broke his own school-record with his 200 free lead off split of 1:37.83 (1:36.63-converted), also lower than the former meet record of 1:38.40, set in 2016.
 
With the altitude conversion that lowers the time to 6:35.18, the Mavericks lead the country by nearly nine seconds.  Laperriere also leads the country in the 200 free.
 
The Mavericks' second squad of Mahmoud Elgayar, Zach Hartman, Jeremy Koch and Anderson also went under the former meet record with a time of 6:45.53, two one-hundredths better than former Meet standard.
 
The fast times continued in a series of time trials that wrapped up the opening day.  Lane Austin set a NCAA qualifying time of 48.85 (48.75-converted) in the 100 butterfly to tie Urbanek for sixth in program history.  Jake Simmons also touched in 49.55 (49.45-converted) seconds to move into the No. 10 spot of CMU history.
 
Swimming alongside the butterfliers, Matt Barrett also broke Sky Hirsch's 2017 meet record in the 100 free, posting a NCAA qualifying time of 45.43 (45.33-converted) seconds to take over the No. 10 spot in program history for that discipline.
 
Urbanek and Sampson then both set NCAA provisional qualifying times in the 200 free.  Urbanek touched in 1:39.14 (1:37.94-converted) to move into the No. 5 spot in program history and third in the country.  Sampson was just behind in 1:39.66 (1:38.46-converted) and now ranks eighth in program history and fifth in Division II this season.
 
The meet will continue through Saturday.
 
Thursday's schedule includes preliminary heats in the 500 free, 200 individual medley and 50 free, starting at 10 a.m.  Diving preliminaries will begin at 1 p.m. while a finals session, which will also include the 200 free relay and men's 3-meter diving events, is slated for 5 p.m.