GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Led by a national-leading, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, El Pomar Natatorium and Colorado Mesa University record swim by
Lily Borgenheimer, the Maverick women's swimming & diving team went a perfect 6-for-6 in event wins on Wednesday evening as they opened a commanding 180-point lead over the rest of the field after the first of four days of the 2022 RMAC Championships.
In addition to Borgenheimer's 200-yard individual medley effort, the Mavericks received a school-record win from
Amelia Kinnard in the 1000 free, a 50 free victory from RMAC Championship veteran
Julie Day and a 1-2-3-4 women's 3-meter diving sweep led by
Jolynn Harris. The Mavericks also won both the 200 free and 200 medley relays with NCAA Division II Championship qualifying times.
The Maverick men also won both relays while
Lane Austin claimed victory in the 50 free to build a 99-point edge after five events.
Both Maverick teams are in search of their fourth consecutive RMAC team titles.
Borgenheimer came into the day as the school-record holder but saw her record go down in the morning preliminaries as redshirt sophomore teammate
Davy Brown posted a NCAA-qualifying time of 2:02.53 to take the top qualifying spot. Motivated by the friendly rivalry, Borgenheimer then came back to post a time of 2:00.40 in the evening finals while Brown went even quicker than she had hours earlier, finishing second in 2:02.37 to likely book a spot at next month's NCAA Division II National Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina as well.
Borgenheimer's time, which converts to a sub-two-minute 1:59.20 with the altitude adjustment, bettered the RMAC Championship record of 2:00.88 set by Oklahoma Baptist's Marizel Van Jaarsveld and lowered Casey Hurrell-Zitelman's (Incarnate Word) former pool record of 2:01.53, which had stood for 11 years, by more than a second. Borgenheimer, who also leads Division II in the 200 breaststroke, also took over the national lead by 1.12 seconds over Van Jaarsveld, who now swims for the University of Indianapolis.
CMU's
Ellie Wilke (2:08.47) and
Sarah Fillerup (2:09.60) also were in the championship final, finishing fourth and sixth, respectively.
Earlier, Day, a graduate transfer from former RMAC associate member Oklahoma Baptist, claimed the first of her three gold medals anchoring the Mavs' 200 free relay team to a time of 1:34.03.
Ruby Bottai,
Logan Anderson and
Izzy Powers were also on that team.
Kinnard then broke her own 1,000 free records, posting a time of 10:15.93 (10:04.53-adjusted) to win the event by 3.99 seconds over 2021 champion and RMAC Swimmer of the Year Meghan Slowey of the Colorado School of Mines, which stands second in the team scoring chase with 207 ½ points, well behind the Mavs' first day total of 387 ½.
Maverick veteran
Robyn Naze, who had set the former Maverick record at the 2021 NCAA Division II National Championships, finished third in 10:34.68, joining Kinnard as a NCAA provisional qualifier.
Kelsea Wright (10:38.86) was fifth while
Portia Blackert had won her morning heat to take ninth overall in 10:56.18.
Day then continued the Maverick momentum, leading a 1-2-3 CMU sweep in the 50 free. She touched in 23.74 seconds after coming out of the prelims as the top qualifier at 23.68. Bottai (23.84) and Powers (23.99) also grabbed medals while
Emily Moreland (24.05) took fifth. Anderson was seventh in 24.13.
After an awards break, attention turned to the diving well, where Harris scored 456.35 points to lead the 3-meter sweep ahead of
Ali Lange (417.90),
Kyra Apodaca (391.90) and
Marissa Stahl (388.05).
The Maverick women then capped the night with a dominating 200 medley relay win.
Lauren White, Borgenheimer, Brown and Day combined for a time of 1:42.89 to defeat Oklahoma Christian by 3.81 seconds.
The Maverick men tallied 323 ½ points in the first five events, getting off to a good start in the 200 free relay.
Ben Sampson,
Andrew Scoggin,
Mado Elkady and Austin combined for a time of 1:20.33 to collect the win.
The Mavs then had three of the top five finishers in the 1000 free, all of whom posted NCAA provisional qualifying times.
Gavin Anderson, the 2021 RMAC Champion, led the way with a second-place time of 9:26.40, moving up four spots to third in CMU history. Serbian freshman
Dejan Urbanek was fourth in 9:32.41 while fellow freshman
Jacob Troescher finished in a career-best 9:37.13. They now rank fourth and ninth in CMU history, respectively.
The Maverick men also went 2-3-5 in the 200 IM and had six of the top 10 swimmers in the discipline.
Matt Barrett led the way in a career-best 1:49.89 to take the silver medal and move up a spot to fifth in Maverick history while Sampson grabbed the bronze in 1:50.01.
Mahmoud Elgayar (1:51.59) also joined them as an NCAA "B" cut qualifier while taking fifth.
Matheus Laperriere (1:52.55) and
John Walgast (1:54.86) were also in the championship final, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively.
Jake Simmons (1:53.07) and
Jeremy Koch (1:53.78) finished first and second in the consolation final as well.
Austin then returned the Mavericks to winning ways, taking the 50 free in 20.22 seconds to move up a spot to fifth in program history. Elkady was second in a career-best 20.34 second while
Kuba Kiszczak finished fifth in an national provisional qualifying time of 20.60. Scoggin also made the final and placed seventh in 20.73 while
Felipe D'Orsi won the consolation final in 20.76 seconds.
Sampson and Austin then returned to the top step of the awards podium as they book-ended the winning 200 medley relay team's time of 1:27.89. Elgayar and Urbanek were also gold medalists as the breaststroke and butterfly legs. Elgayar has now won 11 RMAC titles in his 4-year Maverick career.
The second day of the meet begins at 9 a.m., Thursday with another preliminary swimming session, including heats in the 100 fly, 400 IM and 200 free. Men's 1-meter diving begins at 1 p.m. while the finals session will commence at 5 p.m. That session will be capped by the 400 medley relay.
