COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— For the second time this season, Colorado Mesa University's
Isaiah Cheeks and
Ben Sampson swept the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Men's Swimming & Diving Athlete of the Week awards.
The honors came after they helped lead the Mavericks to victories over a pair of Division I opponents at the Denver Relays on Oct. 8. Because less than 50 percent of RMAC teams competed that week, the awards were bestowed on Wednesday.
Cheeks, a redshirt junior diver from Aurora, Colorado, teamed with
Wyatt Hermanson and
Dawson Wilson to scored 310.5 points en-route to a 3-meter diving relay victory, which came by more than 70 points over squads from Denver and Wyoming. Cheeks scored 127.4 points on his two dives, receiving scores of 7, 7.5 and 8 from the judges. He also led and anchored the Mavs to a third place finish in the 1-meter relay, scoring 81.8 points on two dives to help the Mavs to a 6-dive score of 243.85 points.
Meanwhile, Sampson led off five winning relay teams at the Denver Relays (Oct. 8) as he led the Mavericks to team wins over two more Division I opponents in Denver, the defending Summit League Champions, and Wyoming, the third different Western Athletic Conference, the Mavs have defeated this month.
Winning each of his events, Sampson, a redshirt sophomore from Arvada, Colorado, helped the Mavs win the 200 medley, the 3x100 backstroke, the 4x25 medley, the 4x100 IM and 200 free relays. His split times were 22.51 (50 back), 48.42/48.32 (converted) (100 back), 10.65 (25 back), 51.63/51.23 (converted) (100 IM) and 20.81 (50 free). The 100 back time is an NCAA "B" cut mark and ranks second in Division II this year.
At the relays meet, the Mavs scored 226 team points in the meet, out-pointing Denver by 28 and Wyoming by 58. Each relay win was worth 14 points.
Cheeks was the 2021-22 RMAC Diver of the Year and won the NCAA Division II National Title on the 3-meter board last spring. Sampson is the reigning RMAC Swimmer of the Year and was the national runner-up in the 200-yard backstroke and a 7-event all-American last season. He now has won seven RMAC Swimmer of the Week honors.
The Mavs were off last weekend and return to action this Saturday hosting Wyoming in a dual meet at 1 p.m. in the El Pomar Natatorium.
