GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University redshirt sophomore Ben Sampson swam the fastest two 200-yard backstroke times in NCAA Division II history, highlighting another phenomenal and record-setting day of performances for the Maverick swimming teams who completed team-scoring sweeps of TYR/CMU Invitational titles on Saturday here at the El Pomar Natatorium.
 
Sampson smashed an 8-year old national record during the morning preliminaries heats, swimming to a time of one minute, 40.73 seconds, better than the former record of 1:40.74 held by Queens' Matthew Austin Josa, even without the altitude conversion, which lowers Sampson's mark to 1:39.53, a time that puts Sampson second to only Georgia's Ian Grumm (1:38.84) in all of college swimming this year, according to Swimcloud.
 
Sampson then posted another impressive altitude-adjusted mark of 1:39.97 (1:41.47-actual) to win the event during the finals session, one of ten event wins that the Mavericks claimed during the final day of the meet.
 
The Maverick men won all six of Saturday's events and 18 of the 19 throughout the meet, while scoring 1,397 points to claim their sixth straight and 11th team victory in the history of the meet, which has been held 12 times since 2010.  Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Colorado School of Mines finished second out of the four men's teams with 1,154, the Orediggers' highest point total in 11 all-time appearances.
 
Meanwhile, the CMU women held off Division I Northern Arizona by 66 points, scoring 1,196 ½ points to the Lumberjacks' 1,134 ½.  The two teams had tied at last year's meet.
 
CMU has now won or shared the win in nine of the 12 all-time meets, including each of the last six.  They have scored over 1,100 points in the last five.
 
NAU is the 9-time defending Western Athletic Conference champions and won seven of the 19 events throughout the meet, including two on Saturday, both with meet-record setting times.
 
Mines finished third out of the seven women's teams with 618 points, well ahead of fourth-place Western Colorado (292) and the rest of the field.
 
Sampson's efforts, which were also new meet, pool and school records, were far from the only highlights for the Mavericks, who continued to set records while racking up numerous NCAA Division II Championship qualifying times throughout the night and the meet as a whole.
 
The Mavs set five new meet records during the preliminary session alone and then got to work in salting away their team wins in the evening with even more record-setting performances.
 
School-record holder Amelia Kinnard finished third in the women's 1650 free to begin the night as she posted a time of 17:18.88 (16:58.88-converted), a NCAA provisional qualifying mark.
 
Maverick freshman Amelia Fish finished sixth overall after swimming her time of 17:45.06 (17:25.06-converted) in the slower section of the event at the end of the preliminary session.  She now ranks sixth in program history.  Another CMU freshman in Haven Hinkle was just behind in 17:46.16 (17:26.16-converted), good for seventh place on the day and the No. 8 spot in CMU lore.
 
NAU's Casey Craffey broke her own meet record to win and defender her title in 16:50.62.
 
The Maverick men then 1-2-3 in the 1650 free as graduate transfer Kyle Benjamin smashed Sam Bryant's 2015 meet record by nearly ten seconds with a time of 15:38.95 (15:18.95-converted).  Benjamin, who ended up as the meet's high point scorer with 70 points, was just off Bryant's school (15:16.68-converted) and pool record of 15:36.68 and was joined as an NCAA provisional qualifier by Jacob Troescher and Gavin Anderson.  Troescher was second in 15:49.75 (15:29.75-converted) and now ranks third in program history while Anderson touched in 15:58.28 (15:38.28-converted), just off his now No. 5 ranked career-best time of 15:34.63 from the 2022 RMAC Championships.
 
Katerina Matoskova, the women's meet co-high point scorer with 68 points, then out-dueled teammate Lauren White to win the 200 back in a meet record time of 1:58.32.  Matoskova had also set a meet record time of 1:58.52 in the prelims and out-kicked White over the final lap after trailing by nearly a second with one lap to go in the thrilling race.  In the process, the Czech-born redshirt sophomore moved past White into second on the Mavs' all-time performers chart behind only former national runner-up Mary Saiz.
 
Matoskova (1:57.12) and White (1:58.14) also set solid NCAA provisional qualifying times.  Matoskova's mark was jus 0.09 seconds off the automatic qualifying time. 
 
Sarah Fillerup also won the consolation heat for the Mavs.
 
Sampson then led a 1-2-3-4 with his 200 back finals win.  Teammates Jeremy Koch and Andrew Scoggin were also NCAA "B" cut performers while taking second and third place.
 
Koch now ranks third behind Sampson in CMU history with his preliminary heat time of 1:47.58 (1:46.38-converted) before finishing the finals in 1:48.38, out-touching Scoggin, who ranks second in CMU lore behind only Sampson with his preliminary heat time of 1:46.56 (1:45.36-converted).  Scoggin finished the final in 1:48.48 while Maverick freshman Jackson Moe took fourth in 1:50.62, just off his prelim time of 1:50.08 (1:48.88-converted).
 
The Maverick women then had an impressive performance in the 100 free, helping to increase their team lead back over the Lumberjacks to 112 points after NAU had sliced an overnight deficit of 119 to just 66 after the first two events of the night.
 
Five different Maverick women set NCAA provisional qualifying times as Swedish freshman Olivia Hansson claimed victory in 51.22 seconds (51.12-converted) to move into the No. 4 spot in CMU history.  Davy Brown was second in 51.37 while Ruby Bottai tied for third in 51.58.  Freshman Ada Qunell finished sixth in 52.00 while Izzy Powers won the consolation heat in 52.02 seconds (51.92-converted).
 
Bottai, Brown and Qunell were even faster in the morning as Bottai was the top qualifier in 51.26 seconds (51.16-converted) while Brown finished her morning race in 51.41 (51.31-converted).  Qunell finished in 51.83 seconds (51.73-converted) during the morning.
 
The Maverick men then went 1-2-3 in the 100 free as Mado Elkady set a temporary meet and school record of 44.18 (44.08-converted) seconds, which would later go back and forth between he and Sampson during the 400 free relay.  Felipe D'Orsi took second in 45.29 seconds while Matheus Laperriere was third in 45.30 (45.20-converted).  D'Orsi had set a quicker time of 44.98 (44.88-converted) during the morning.
 
The Mavs continued their winning and record-setting ways in the women's 200 breast as Lily Borgenheimer broke her hours-old meet record to win by more than five seconds in 2:11.77 (2:10.57-converted).  Borgenheimer had also broke her own meet record in the morning session in 2:12.02.
 
Freshman Maddi Moran was also an NCAA provisional qualifier, finishing fourth in 2:20.79 (2:19.59-converted) to take the No. 5 spot in CMU history.  Tori Bartusiak also made the "A" final and finished seventh after posting a morning time of 2:22.11 (2:20.91-converted) to take the No. 8 spot in program history.
 
Mahmoud Elgayar then completed his breaststroke sweep of the meet, winning the 200 in an NCAA "B" cut time of 2:01.87 (2:00.67-converted).  The Mavs also had five of the top six finishers as freshman Mauricio Posadas finished third in 2:03.98 (2:02.78-converted) while redshirt freshman Aron Jonsson and Benjamin both also moved into the top 10 of CMU history during the morning before taking fourth and sixth, respectively, in the finals.  Jonsson posted a time of 2:03.78 (2:02.58-converted) to rank eighth while Benjamin touched in 2:03.82 (2:02.62-converted) to rank ninth.
 
Lucas Viana also finished fifth in the final, touching in 2:04.74 (2:03.54-converted).
 
NAU's women then had won last charge to close to within 50 points of the Mavs in the team scoring chase as Maddy Rey lead a 1-5 sweep with a pool and meet record time of 1:59.51, the first sub-2 minute clocking in the facility after teammate Elsa Musselman had set the records of 2:02.02 in the morning before taking second at night in 2:02.53.
 
Meanwhile, Maverick freshman Kiara Borchardt finished sixth in 2:10.11 after posting a preliminary round time of 2:08.92 (2:07.72-converted) to take over the No. 8 spot in CMU history.
 
Minutes later, Dejan Urbanek won his third individual event of the met, setting a pool and meet record time of 1:46.24 (1:45.04-converted) to win by 3.81 seconds.  He also easily went under the NCAA provisional qualifying standard and was less than a half-second off the converted automatic qualifying standard of 1:45.86.
 
The Maverick relay teams then capped the night in record-setting fashion.

The women's quartet of White, Bottai, Brown and Hansson set a school, pool and meet record-smashing time of 3:22.24 (3:21.84-converted) as White posted a lead-off leg time of 50.82 (50.72-converted) to easily hit the NCAA provisional qualifying standard in the 100 free.  Qunell also lowered her provisional qualifying time in the 100 free to 51.55 (51.45-converted) as the opening leg on CMU's third place "B" team.  Logan Anderson also set a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 51.40 (51.30-converted) in the 100 free, leading off CMU's exhibition "C" team.
 
The Maverick men then turned in a meet record time of 2:57.93 with Elkady, D'Orsi, Laperriere and Lane Austin combining for a 3.53-second win.  Elkady posted a meet and school record 100 free split of 44.07 seconds (43.97-converted) taking back the records from Sampson who had posted a 44.15 (44.05-converted) split just minutes earlier as the lead-off on CMU's exhibition "C" team, which swam in an earlier heat.