USAFA, Colo.— For the second straight outing, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick women's swimming and diving team came from behind to forge a tie with a NCAA Division I opponent.
The Mavericks, ranked fourth in Division II, won each of the four final swimming events and went 1-2-3 in the 1-meter diving competition to post a 121-121 tie with the host United States Air Force Academy on Friday evening here at the Cadet Natatorium.
The Mavericks, who had eight overall event wins in the 13-event format, also drubbed Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and 24
th-ranked rival Colorado School of Mines, 188-51, in the other leg of the tri-meet, extending their RMAC dual meet winning streak to 32 while guaranteeing their sixth consecutive season undefeated against Division II foes.
The Mavericks, who tied 8-time defending Western Athletic Conference Champion Northern Arizona over four days of competition at the A3 Performance Invitational in November are now 11-6-1 in duals this season. They will finish the year 7-0 in RMAC duals and 9-0 against Division II foes this season.
The No. 4 Maverick men split the concurrent tri-dual, defeating No. 16 Mines and falling to the host Falcons.
6-time NCAA Division II All-Americans
Lily Borgenheimer and
Lauren White were both double-winners while
Katerina Matoskova, the 200 free relay team of
Ruby Bottai,
Julie Day,
Logan Anderson and
Davy Brown and divers
Ali Lange and
Jolynn Harris also claimed event victories.
Borgenheimer set an improved NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying time of 4:35.63 (4:25.63-altitude adjusted) to win the 400-yard individual medley by a huge 14.2-second margin. She was also strong in the 100 breaststroke, taking that event by more than a second in 1:04.79.
Meanwhile, White won the 200 free in 1:55.13 before starting CMU's come-back with a dominant 100 back win. White finished that race in 57.12 seconds to win by 2.14.
White and Borgenheimer also swam on the first two legs of CMU's second place 200 medley relay team, that started the night with a time of 1:47.14.
Amelia Kinnard then finished second in the 1000 free at 11:08.45 before White and
Kelsea Wright went 1-2 in the 200 free. Wright finished 1:56.28.
Day then finished third in the 50 free, touching in 24.85 seconds before Borgenheimer won the 400 IM before the first intermission.
Meanwhile, Lange led the first of two 1-2-3 Maverick diving sweeps, claiming the 3-meter competition with 241.20 points.
Kyra Apodaca finished second with 226.50 points while Harris finished third with 225. On the 1-meter contested later in the evening, Harris tallied 249.60 points on six dives to win over Lange (238.88), Apodaca (230.55) and the rest of the 7-diver field.
Following White's 100 back win, Matoskova claimed a thrilling 500 freestyle win, touching in 5:21.58 to edge Air Force's Sophie Boulware by just five hundredths of a second. Wright (5:23.77) and Kinnard (5:26.09) also placed well, taking fourth and fifth, respectively.
The 200 free relay team finished in 1:37.37 as they defeated their Falcon counterparts by 1.44 seconds.
Elsewhere, Ellie Wilkie led the Mavs in the 100 fly, finishing fifth in 1:00.97 while Wright (53.50) and Bottai (53.52) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, to pace CMU in the 100 free.
The Mavs will continue their season in two weeks competing in a Jan. 21 tri-meet at BYU and against the University of Denver Pioneers in Provo, Utah.
