GREENSBORO, N.C.— Swimming what may very well be her final collegiate race, Colorado Mesa University's Lily Borgenheimer became the first Maverick swimmer to ever win a national title as she won the 200-yard breaststroke on Saturday evening at the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships in the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
 
The win punctuated another phenomenal night and week of efforts for the Maverick squads, who both turned in their best ever team finishes, by wide margins.
 
The Maverick women, who combined to earn ten total all-America performances on the final day of the 4-day championship, finished fifth in the final standings with 241 team points, 82 more than they had in 2021, when they had recorded a previous program-best 12^th place finish.
 
Meanwhile, the CMU men tallied a sixth-place total of 221 points as Ben Sampson broke his own school-record to claim second place in the 200-yard backstroke, minutes before Borgenheimer's historic victory.  The men's previous best finish of 11^th had come in 2019 and repeated in 2021 and was keyed by Sampson and Friday night national diving champion Isaiah Cheeks.
 
Amelia Kinnard, tenth in the 1,650 freestyle, Lauren White, seventh in the 200 back, Jolynn Harris, seventh in 1-meter diving and the men's and women's 400 free relay teams also scored valuable team points in the evening session while Ali Lange and Kyra Apodaca had done the same during the afternoon diving preliminary round.
 
However, Borgenheimer certainly stole the show, claiming what had been an elusive national title until Saturday night.
 
The fourth-year redshirt junior from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin came into the night after reaching three other individual championship finals this year after reaching two in 2021 as well.  She had also finished as the 2019 NCAA Division II Championship runner-up as a sophomore at Minnesota State, but climbed to the top stop of the podium three years later in CMU colors.
 
In her four collegiate seasons, Borgenheimer has won 15 all-America certificates, 12 of which came at CMU in just two years.
 
On Saturday, Borgenheimer was in fifth place after an opening lap time of 30.18 seconds but quickly surged into the lead over the next 50, taking just less than a quarter-second ahead of Indianapolis' Marizel Van Jaarsveld, who had defeated Borgenheimer and others to win the 200 and 400 IM titles earlier in the week before taking second in Friday's 100 breaststroke final.
 
Posting a 1:02.88 opening 100 in Saturday's win, Borgenheimer then stretched her lead to 1.39 seconds over Carson-Newman junior Kailee Morgan over the third 50 before holding off Morgan to win in 2:11.56, 0.77 seconds faster than Morgan (2:12.33).  Van Jaarsveld touched third in 2:13.33.
 
Borgenheimer earned six more all-America honors throughout the week, matching her 2021 total.  She is eligible to return for a fifth year in 2022-23 if she decides to take advantage of NCAA's COVID eligibility waiver.
 
If she chooses not to, then her career will have come to an end on the highest of notes.
 
On most nights, Sampson's 200 back performance would have been the striking note.
 
The Arvada, Coloradoan led the men's final through 150 yards but could not hold off Drury's Mikita Tsmyh, who took the title in 1:41.36.  Sampson was just 0.17 seconds back in 1:41.53, smashing his hours-old school-record of 1:42.37.  Despite being out-touched, Sampson still managed to claim the best-ever men's national championship swimming finish in Maverick history while earning his seventh all-America honors of the week.  The redshirt freshman also set school-records in six different disciplines while matching another during the national meet that saw him account for 60 team points, including his share on four relays.
 
Elsewhere, White capped as nearly as an impressive meet with a seventh place finish in the women's 200 back before leading-off the Mavs' tenth place 400 free relay team to garner her CMU all-sport record 15^th and 16^th career all-America honors.
 
White, who finished fourth in the 100 back on Friday with a school-record time, set a personal-best of 1:59.30 in Saturday's 200 back prelims before finishing the final in 1:59.87.  She ranks second in program-history in the 200-yard distance behind 2016 NCAA runner-up Mary Saiz, who had held the honor of the highest ever Maverick swimming finish before Borgenheimer and Sampson bettered and matched that claim in a matter of minutes.
 
At the beginning of the evening, Kinnard posted a time of 17:06.35 to finish tenth overall in the 1,650 free.  She was amongst the top eight seeds who had the opportunity to compete during the evening session after the other 21 entrants had competed in the morning preliminary session.  In the process, the redshirt junior and Eastern Michigan transfer claimed her second all-America honor of the week.  Kinnard had placed 15^th in the 500 free on Friday.
 
After the 200 breast, Harris took to the 1-meter diving board for the 8-woman final.  She entered the final in seventh place with a preliminary round score of 399.00 and improved to 417.95 in the finals, claiming seventh place and her fourth career all-America honor.  Harris had finished eighth on the 3-meter board on Thursday and was the national runner-up on the 1-meter last year.
 
The Maverick 400 free relay teams then capped the meet and the weekend.
 
White, Davy Brown, Ruby Bottai and Logan Anderson represented the women and combined for a time of 3:24.49.  White set a career-best 100 free time of 50.91 seconds as the lead-off leg.
 
Meanwhile, Felipe D'Orsi, Lane Austin, Matheus Laperriere and Kuba Kiszczak finished 15^th in the men's event with a time of 2:58.79.  All four Mavs went under 45 seconds.