LAS VEGAS— Ben Sampson won three events and set or helped set three new Maverick marks while ending up as the high-point award winner as the Colorado Mesa University swimming and diving team finished the 2023 calendar year on a high note at the UNLV Invitational, which wrapped up Tuesday night here in the Rebels' Jim Reetz Pool and Buchanan Natatorium.
 
Sampson won both the 100-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke, smashing his own school-record in the former, before setting the Mavs' new 100-yard freestyle mark as the lead-off on the Mavericks' winning and school-record setting 400 yard free relay team.
 
The Maverick women also shined as Agata Naskret won the 200 back with a time that was just off of one CMU's longest standing school records, while Benedict Nagy set the Mavs' new 100 IM record in a runner-up finish in that event.
 
Both Maverick teams finished third in the team standings as the lone Division II squad in the field as the CMU men scored 770 ½ points over the past three days while the Maverick women finished with 696.  The host Rebels won both titles with 1,065 ½ men's points and 1,012 women's points.  Hawai'i finished second with 870 points on the women's side while edging the Mavs on the men's with 781.
 
CMU was nearly 300 points ahead of former Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival and now Division I Cal Baptist in both team scoring races as the Lancers finished fourth in the 8-team women's and 7-team men's field.  Pacific, New Mexico's women, Seattle and Arizona also competed.
 
Men's Swimming
 
Sampson won all five of his events throughout the meet, scoring 100 team points, 31 more than any other men's swimmer.  He also set a second U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying time during Saturday's Long Course Meters Time Trial Session, which was not part of the team scoring.
 
On Tuesday, the redshirt junior won the 100 IM, a non-championship event, in 48.51 seconds, absolutely crushing his former school-record of 50.55 seconds.  His time is the second fastest in all of college swimming this year and extended his NCAA Division II lead.
 
In the very next event, the all-time NCAA Division II record-holder then won the 200 back in 1:44.69 as the Mavs had four of the top eight finishers.

Sampson then capped the meet with a lead-off split of 43.63 seconds as he, Aziz Ghaffari, Jameson McEnaney and Andrew Scoggin combined for a time of 2:54.80 in the 400 free relay.  Sampson's lead-off time broke the Mavs' 100 free relay record of 43.97, held by current teammate Mado Elkady.
 
Meanwhile, the relay squad as a whole took down the Mavs' month-old record of 2:56.31 that McEnaney and Ghaffari had helped post at the November TYR/CMU Invitational.  The Mavs also moved up to third in Division II this year as they won the race by 3.23 seconds of the Hawai'i squad.
 
Other highlights were plentiful as Jacob Troescher finished fourth in the 1,650 free at the beginning of the evening with a time of 15:42.42.  Gavin Anderson also scored well in that event, taking eighth in a season-best and NCAA Division II Championship "B" cut time of 15:56.16.
 
Freshman Max Ayres then took 11^th in the 100 IM (51.47) swimming out of the consolation final before Sampson won the "A" final.
 
In the 200 Back, Scoggin finished fourth while Luka Samsonov and Jeremy Koch also reached the championship final, placing seventh and eighth, respectively.  All three had swum faster during the morning prelim session, with Scoggin touching in 1:46.71.  Koch had a 1:49.00 morning time while Samsonov touched in 1:49.03.
 
The Mavs also had a high finish from Ghaffari in the 100 free as the Tunisian and Florida State transfer finished third in a season-best and improved NCAA "B" cut time of 44.49 seconds.  Meanwhile, McEnaney finished tenth in 45.14 seconds while Austin Patterson scored three team points with a 14^th place time of 45.86.
 
The Mavs also had a strong fourth place finish from freshman Marcos Otero in the 200 breast, who finished in 2:01.32.  Teammates Aron Jonson (2:02.95) and Mauricio Posadas (2:04.06) had placed tenth and 11^th after qualifying for the consolation final.
 
In the 200 fly, Gavyn Tatge led the Mavs, placing 14^th with a consolation final time of 1:54.23 after qualifying in 1:53.40 during the morning session.  John Walgast also won the bonus "C" final in 1:54.53 before anchoring the Mavs' "B" 400 free team that also included Otero, Patterson and Ayres to a ninth place time of 3:01.34.
 
Women's Swimming
 
Melaina Howard finished tenth in the 1650 free with a time of 17:47.35 as the Mavs' lone distance swimmer before Nagy completed the 100 IM in 56.97 seconds, nearly two quicker than Logan Anderson's 2020 former CMU record of 58.82.  Nagy, who finished second in the entire women's meet with 74 team points, had also gone quicker than Anderson's record in the morning prelims, qualifying in 57.95.
 
The Mavs then loaded up in the 200 back, placing three in the top four and four in the "A" final as Naskret dominated the competition in 1:56.95, more than four seconds ahead of teammate Katerina Matoskova.  Naskret's NCAA Championship automatic qualifying or "A" cut time is the second fastest in Division II this year and is just off the Mavs' 7-year old school record of 1:56.81 set Mary Saiz, a former national runner-up.
 
Matoskova, who ranks fifth in Division II, was clocked in 2:00.97 during the final after qualifying out of the morning session in 2:00.74.    Meanwhile, Sophia Bains finished fourth in Tuesday's race with a time of 2:03.15 while Lauren White placed seventh in 2:05.41 after finishing the prelims in 2:02.51.  She ranks third in Division II this year with an earlier season-best of 1:57.84.
 
The Mavs also had some success in the 100 free as Ada Qunell finished fourth in 50.97 seconds while Elli Williams won the consolation final in an even quicker and NCAA "B" Cut time of 50.77 seconds to take ninth place while moving into the No. 5 spot of program history for the discipline.
 
Izzy Powers also scored, placing 13^th in 51.92 seconds, just off her season-best of 51.87 from last month.
 
The Mavs were not represented in the 200 breast, but had five scorers in the 200 fly as Nagy posted a solid runner-up time of 2:04.01 while Kiara Borchardt also qualified for the "A" final, placing sixth in a season-best time of 2:05.59 to move into the No. 8 spot of CMU history.
 
Meanwhile, Sydnee O'Neil took tenth with a time of 2:06.40 out of the consolation final, touching head of Tori Bartusiak and Amber Siverts, who took 12^th and 15^th, respectively.  Bartusiak finished in a season-best 2:08.91 while Siverts touched in 2:09.73 after qualifying in 2:08.99.
 
The Mavs then finished the meet with third and sixth place finishes in the 400 free relay.  The "A" squad of Williams, Qunell, Powers and White finished in 3:22.95 as Willams turned in a lead-off split of 50.89 seconds.  Meanwhile, the "B" team of Naskret, Matoskova, Borchardt and Bains finished in 3:28.12.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavs will resume their season on Jan. 5, 2024 with a dual at Utah in Salt Lake City.