GREENSBORO, N.C.— Both Colorado Mesa University 400-yard medley relay teams set school-records as the Maverick swimming and diving teams combined for seven top-10 finishes on Day 2 of the NCAA Division II Championships, which continued Thursday here at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
Those efforts, paced by a fifth place finish from
Kelsea Wright in the 200 free, pushed the Maverick women up nine spots and into sixth place in the team standings with 97 points, 73 of which came on Thursday.
The Maverick men are in seventh place with 92 after sitting sixth on Wednesday night.
Wright was one of four Maverick women who advanced into the evening session and delivered a time of one minute, 49.92 seconds in the final. That clocking was nearly identical to her morning preliminary round swim of 1:49.91 and just off her personal-best of 1:49.89. In the process, Wright earned her first career individual all-America honor after picking up five relay honors in 2021.
The top eight finishers in each event earn first team honors while the ninth through 16
th place finishers garner second team accolades.
Lauren White had also advanced to the consolation final in the 200 free and finished 14
th overall with a time of 1:51.77. She had qualified in 1:50.31 and is the school-record holder at 1:49.18.
Lily Borgenheimer also advanced to her second individual final of the meet and finished eighth in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:21.65 after qualifying seventh in 4:21.25.
The Mavericks also scored 27 team points on the 3-meter diving board as
Jolynn Harris finished eighth with an 11-dive score of 405.95 points. She had set a score of 403.90 in the afternoon preliminary round finishing just ahead of teammates
Kyra Apodaca and
Ali Lange, who were also inside the top-10, but just out of the evening finals.
Apodaca, a freshman, finished ninth with 401.50 to earn second team all-America honors. Lange was tenth with 399.70 points and is now a 3-time all-American. The same can be said for Harris, who now has two first team plaudits to her credit.
After the diving break, White then got the Mavericks off to a flying start in the medley relay, turning in 100-back split of 54.64 seconds to smash her own school-record of 54.91 from last month's Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships. Swimming in the second of three seeded heats, the Mavs then extended their race lead after Borgenheimer turned in a 1:01.91 breaststroke leg before
Davy Brown kept the Mavs in front of the heat with a 55.98 butterfly leg.
Logan Anderson then swam the freestyle portion of the race in 50.78 seconds as the Mavs combined for a time of 3:43.31, more than a half-second faster than the 2019 national meet squad, which had finished in 3:43.88.
They finished ninth overall and second in the heat on Thursday.
White now has a dozen all-America honors in her 3-year Maverick career, the most of any CMU varsity women's athlete in any sport. Borgenheimer picked up her second and third of the meet and now has nine in her two years at CMU and 12 at the Division II level, counting three as a freshman and sophomore at Minnesota State.
Brown is now a 4-time honoree while Anderson picked up her second all-America honor of the meet and third of her career, all of which have come on relays.
The Maverick men also placed ninth overall in the 400 medley relay as
Ben Sampson,
Mahmoud Elgayar,
Dejan Urbanek and
Lane Austin combined for a school-record time of 3:12.21, well faster than the 3:12.76 altitude-adjusted mark the Mavericks had posted in November. Sampson, who matched his own 100 back school-record and national-leading time of 46.36 seconds, gave the Mavericks the heat lead after the opening leg before Elgayar posted a 53.87 100 breast split. Urbanek then flew to a fast 47.59 relay butterfly split while Austin finished things up in 44.39 seconds in the freestyle portion.
They group was the only Maverick men in action during the evening session, a night after the same quartet placed sixth in the 200 medley relay with a school-record time.
Sampson has now won four all-America honors while setting four school-records and matching another this week. He is the top seed in the 100 and 200 back, which are still to be contested.
Elgayar has picked up two relay honors thus far in 2022 and now has 12 in his career, equaling White as the most decorated Maverick in all-sports history. Urbanek picked up his second relay honor in as many nights while Austin earned his third all-America certificate of the week and the ninth of his career.
Friday's portion of the meet begins with preliminary swimming heats at 10 a.m. EST (8 a.m. Mountain).
