GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The No. 2 (women's) and 3 (men's) ranked Colorado Mesa University swimming teams will look to extend their long Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference dual-meet winning streaks when they head to Golden to face the 22^nd-ranked Colorado School of Mines Orediggers for a Saturday afternoon contest.
 
Action in the CSM Natatorium will get underway at 3 p.m. with an 11-event format.  Diving events will not be contested.
 
A basic single-camera live stream with no commentary nor graphics will be provided by Mines and can be seen at the RMAC Network.  There will not be any live results, but CMU fans can get a full recap of the day's events on Saturday evening on the Mavs' website www.cmumavericks.com.
 
Meet Format
 
The event format is listed below.  Scoring will be done on a 9-4-3-2-1 basis for the individual events and 11-4-2 for the relay events with a limit of three scoring individuals and two scoring relays per school.
 
Individual swimmers are limited to scoring in three events.
 
Event Schedule
 400 Medley Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
50 Free
200 IM
BREAK
100 Fly
100 Free
100 Back
500 Free
BREAK
100 Breast
200 Free Relay
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks were off last weekend after competing at the Denver Relays on Oct. 7.  The Maverick women won two events and finished second in the 3-team meet with 162 points over 11 relay events to finish second behind the host Pioneers (216), but well ahead of another NCAA Division I in-state foe in Northern Colorado, which scored 100 points to place third.
 
CMU's men won four relays and scored 210 points but were edged by Denver (246).   Northern Colorado does not have a men's team.
 
To see the complete meet recap, please click here.
 
Honors Sweep
 
Maverick standouts Isaiah Cheeks and Ben Sampson swept the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men's Swimming and Diver of the Week awards last week.  Those were announced on Oct. 11 and marked the fifth time that that pair had swept the awards, which were based on a combination of performances from the Mavs' first two meets of the season. 
 
Cheeks has now earned seven consecutive RMAC Men's Diver of the Week awards after winning all six of the bestowed honors last season.
 
Meanwhile, Sampson was named as the RMAC Swimmer of the Week for the tenth time in his illustrious career. 
 
To read about Cheeks and Sampson's efforts, click here.
 
In the polls
 
Although the Mavericks were off last week, they did receive some good news in the pre-season edition of the CSCAA's NCAA Division II Top 25 Dual-Meet polls.  The Maverick women were tabbed second behind only defending national champion Nova Southeastern while the CMU men were picked third in the polls, which were announced last Friday (Oct. 13).
 
The poll committees, consisting of Division II coaches, assesses, and ranks the nation's top 25 dual meet teams in monthly polls.  Their evaluation considers head-to-head dual meet outcomes, performances since the last rankings, season-long performances, dual meet records, roster changes (such as injuries), and data from the SwimCloud Simulator. It is important to note that the poll's objective is not to predict the top finishers in a championship meet format.
 
The Maverick women received 243 points in the poll, just one fewer than top-ranked Nova Southeastern.  Indianapolis (232), Drury (221) and Tampa (220) round out the top five of the pre-season poll.
 
The Mavs are also one of the four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference squads in the top 25 oof the poll with affiliate members Simon Fraser and Oklahoma Christian holding down the No. 13 and 18 spots while Mines is ranked 22^nd.
 
Indianapolis took the top spot in the men's poll with 249 points after winning last year's national title.  McKendree is ranked second at 235 while the Mavs received 223 points, one more than fourth-ranked Drury.  Tampa rounds out the top five with 208.
 
11^th-ranked Oklahoma Christian, No. 17 Simon Fraser and No. 22 Mines also represent the RMAC in the top 25 while UT-Permian Basin is the third of eight teams in the also receiving votes category.
 
About the Streaks
 
As mentioned in the introduction, the Maverick squads will be looking to extend lengthy Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference dual-meet winning streaks.
 
The Maverick women, who defeated CSU Pueblo 345-57 during the Intermountain Shootout, have won 33 consecutive RMAC duals over the past 7-plus years since defeating Western Colorado, 155-144 on Jan. 22, 2016.  Now Division I Lindenwood was the last RMAC foe to defeat the Maverick women doing so 10 days earlier on Jan. 12 of that year.
 
CMU's men have won 12 consecutive duals since the start of the 2016-17 season after last falling to Lindenwood on the same day.  They then started that said streak of nearly seven calendar years defeating Mines on Nov. 12, 2016 in their first and only RMAC dual of that season.
 
Saturday's duals are slated to be the Mavs' last RMAC duals of the season as CMU will compete against mostly Division I competition and in invitational meets throughout the season.  The Maverick men did not compete in any RMAC duals last season after defeating Mines three times and Adams State once during the 2021-22 campaign.  CMU's women also did not have any RMAC duals last season but enjoyed a 7-0 record in the 2021-22 campaign.
 
No. 1 Spots
 
The Mavericks have posted some quick times in their opening two meets and lead the Division II top-times report in impressive 15 different events, including seven non-championship disciplines and five relays according to the early-season NCAA Top Times Reports as of Wednesday.
 
The listing of the Mavs' national leaders with their times (altitude-adjusted when applicable) to date include:
 
Women
50 Back*- Agata Naskret (25.77)
50 Breast*- Maddi Moran (29.66)
100 Breast- Moran (1:04.52)
50 Fly*- Kiara Borchardt (25.86)
100 IM*- Katerina Matoskova (1:00.03)
200 Free Relay (1:36.23)
400 Free Relay (3:29.88)
200 Medley Relay (1:44.29)
400 Medley Relay (3:50.38)
 
Men
50 Back*- Ben Sampson (22.38)
50 Fly*- Kuba Kiszczak (22.40)
100 IM*- Sampson (50.65)
200 IM- Sampson (1:49.99)
400 IM- Sampson (3:52.48)
200 Medley Relay (1:29.10)
 
*-Non Championship Event
 
All-American List
 
The Mavericks roster or returning all-Americans is quite lengthy and impressive.
 
Eighteen (10 men, 8 women) of the 27 Mavericks who earned a combined 80 CSCAA All-America honors in 2023 return to this year's lineup.  The returning group earned a combined total of 55 (30 men's 25 women's) all-America honors, which go to the top 16 finishers in each event at the national championships, last season.  The top eight finishers earn first team honors while the ninth through 16^th place finishers are Second Team/Honorable Mention selections.
 
Here's a list of CMU's returning all-Americans along with the number of honors each received in 2023 and the total number in their career.
 
Women
Sophia Bains (1/1)
Kiara Borchardt (3/3)
Olivia Hansson (2/2)
Katerina Matoskova (5/11)
Maddi Moran (1/1)
Izzy Powers (2/2)
Ada Qunell (4/4)
Lauren White (7/23)
 
Men
Isaiah Cheeks (2/6)
Mado Elkady (3/4)
Wyatt Hermanson (2/2)
Kuba Kiszczak (5/7)
Matheus Laperriere (4/7)
Jackson Moe (1/1)
Ben Sampson (7/14)
Andrew Scoggin (1/1)
Dejan Urbanek (4/8)
Dawson Wilson (2/2)
 
Site Change, Now at Home
 
Earlier this month, the Mavericks  recently learned that the site of this year's RMAC Championships has been moved to Grand Junction and the Mavs' El Pomar Natatorium.  The meet had originally been scheduled to be held in Lenexa, Kansas but was moved after a determination of the RMAC Swimming and Diving Athletic Administrators Council in the best interest of the league's swimming and diving student-athletes.
 
The Mavericks and CMU have hosted the last four and ten previous RMAC Championships and will now do so again over five days from Feb. 13-17, 2024.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavs have dominated the all-time dual-meet series with the Orediggers.
 
The Maverick men have won the last 16 dual-meet match-ups to take a commanding 22-5 lead in the series, which is CMU's most often renewed rivalry.  The Mavs are 5-3 against Mines in Golden.
 
CSM last won on Oct. 27, 2012, when the Orediggers won by a 131-112 margin.
 
The Maverick women have been even more dominant, winning the last 12 duals to take a 30-3 lead in their series with the Orediggers.  CMU is 9-1 against the Orediggers in Golden.  Mines' last win came on Oct. 31, 2015 by a 123-78 margin in a neutral-site encounter at Adams State.
 
About the Orediggers
 
Mines got its season off to a start last weekend competing in a tri-dual at CSU Pueblo and against Adams State.  The Orediggers won 20 of the 22 total events.
 
The Mines men defeated Adams State, 178-26 while the Oredigger women defeated CSU Pueblo, 136-50 and Adams State, 146-39.  CSU Pueblo does not have a men's team.
 
The Orediggers swept this week's RMAC Swimmer of the Week awards as junior Ronan Lauinger won all three of his events in the dual with Adams to claim the men's honor while Annie Osmun also won all three of her events in the tri-dual to claim the women's accolade.
 
The Oredigger squads are both ranked 22^nd in the pre-season edition CSCAA Dual-Meet Polls after their women finished in that spot at last year's national championships while the Oredigger men finished 30^th.  The Mines women were also second to CMU at last year's RMAC Championships while the men finished third.
 
Four Orediggers, three of whom return this year, earned all-America honors in individual events.  Four other Oredigger women also earned honors in relay evens a year ago.
 
Up Next and Down the Road
 
The Mavs will be off again next weekend before heading to Laramie, Wyoming to take on Division I Wyoming in a dual-meet on Friday, Nov. 3.
 
The Mavs will then host the TYR CMU Invitational from Nov. 15-18, a meet Mines will compete in as well.