INDIANAPOLIS— Seven Colorado Mesa University divers will look to officially join their swimming counterparts in this week's NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships as they will attempt to successfully navigate the NCAA Pre-Championship qualification diving meet on Tuesday here at the Indiana University Natatorium.
 
The Maverick contingent of five men and two women have all reached the NCAA qualifying standards twice during the season but must now compete alongside fellow divers from around the country with the same judging panel to secure one of the 40 total diving spots in the official championship meet.  The swimming portion of the NCAA Championships will begin Tuesday evening with the 800-yard freestyle relay events while diving competition will get underway on Wednesday.
 
Results of Tuesday's diving meet competition can be seen on DiveMeets.com.  Action is slated to begin at 10 a.m. EST (8 a.m. Mountain).
 
Defending NCAA Division II National 3-meter Champion Isaiah Cheeks is the veteran of a young Maverick men's group that includes true freshmen Devon Gordon, Wyatt Hermanson and Dawson Wilson as well as redshirt sophomore Josh Thomas, who will each be making their first national qualification meet appearance.  They are amongst the 26 men, who will be fighting for 18 spots in the official championships.
 
Meanwhile, CMU sophomore Kyra Apodaca, a returning honorable mention all-American, and freshman Kenya Meyer will be amongst the group of 41 women, who are looking to earn one of the 22 spots into the official championship.  They shared RMAC Championship Diver of the Meet honors after Apodaca won the 3-meter title before Meyer came back to win the 1-meter event.
 
On Tuesday, the Maverick divers will perform six optional dives on both the 1 and 3-meter boards.  The top nine men and top 11 women on each board will qualify for the championship to contest both 11-dive events during the rest of the week, provided they completed both competitions on Tuesday.  If there are any divers, who finish amongst that top group on both boards, then additional spots will be handed out, one at a time, based on the qualification meet finish, alternating boards beginning with the 1-meter, until the diving quota is met.
 
Cheeks, who successfully defended his Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship Diver of the Meet award as well as both his 1 and 3-meter titles at last month's conference meet in the El Pomar Natatorium, is a 4-time overall CSCAA All-American who is gunning for his third official championship qualification in what will be his fourth attempt.  After narrowly missing out of an official NCAA Championship meet appearance as a redshirt freshman in 2020, Cheeks placed fourth (3m) and tenth (1m) at the 2021 championships before winning the 3-meter crown while placing fourth on the 1-meter in 2022.
 
He has compiled yet another impressive season as a whole, racking up all six RMAC Men's Diver of the Meet honors that were handed out.
 
The other four Maverick men appear to be peaking at the right time as well as all four got to this point after setting their two necessary qualifying scores at the RMAC Championships and the Maverick Last Chance Qualifier on Feb. 18.
 
Wilson earned a pair of Second Team All-RMAC certificates with fourth place finishes in both diving events at the RMAC Championships while Thomas took fifth in both.  Hermanson and Gordon competed as exhibition divers during the RMAC Championships but set their qualifying scores during the preliminary rounds before following it up with qualifying efforts at the last chance meet.
 
Apodaca, who earned RMAC Freshman of the Year honors after placing ninth on the 3-meter and 15^th on the 1-meter at the 2022 NCAA Championships, has also had a strong season and booked her return trip to the nationals site well before the RMAC Championships while earning five RMAC Women's Diver of the Week honors.
 
She then won the RMAC 1-meter title after setting a pool record score of 479.65 points during the afternoon preliminary round.  Meyer, a freshman, was second behind Apodaca in that event but then reversed things on the final night of the RMAC Championships, squeaking out a 4 ½ point win over Apodaca in the 3-meter.
 
Meyer, who had achieved her first NCAA qualifying score during the RMAC Championships, then achieved her second qualifying score at the Last Chance Qualifier, when she won the 1-meter event.