GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University swimming and diving teams combined to defeat three NCAA Division I opponents while the Maverick women knocked off a Power 5 conference member for the first time in program history on a stellar day of performances at the Intermountain Shootout, which wrapped up Saturday here at the El Pomar Natatorium.
 
The Maverick women went 3-1 in head-to-head dual scores against the other four teams, out-pointing BYU of the Big XII Conference for the first time.  The Mavs also defeated Division I Air Force 224-186 to knock off the Falcons for the first time in 21 all-time dual meetings and extended their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference dual-meet winning streak of more than seven years to 33 with a 345-57 drubbing of CSU Pueblo.
 
The Mavs fell just short (206-198) of Pac 12 Utah as the duals with BYU and Utah came down to the final event, which saw the Mavs take second in the 400 free relay between Utah and BYU, one of ten second place and 19 top-3 women's performances throughout meet, nine of which came on Saturday.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick men blasted Air Force 307-102 but fell short to BYU (253 ½-146 ½) and Utah (227-176).  They Mavs were once again led by Ben Sampson, who won all five of his individual events throughout the two days, including the 200-yard individual medley and 200 back on Saturday, both of which were done with NCAA Division II Championship provisional or "B Cut" times.
 
The Maverick women also had three such times while divers Jenna Hurley and Isaiah Cheeks both set NCAA qualifying scores in 11-dive women's 1-meter and men's 3-meter competitions, respectively.
 
Sophomores Maddi Moran and Ada Qunell led the Maverick women as each won events on Saturday.
 
Moran took the 50 breaststroke in 29.66 seconds before coming back to take second in the 200-yard discipline with a time of 2:22.71.  She also teamed with Katerina Matoskova, Kiara Borchardt and Qunell for a third place finish in the 200 medley relay, which saw the Mavs touch third in 1:44.88, just 0.04 behind Utah, a result that eventually would have reversed the overall dual against the Utes.
 
Meanwhile, Qunell set a NCAA "B" cut time of 52.01 (51.91-altitide adjusted) to win the 100 free before clocking a lead-off split of 52.02 to help the Maverick 400 free relay team to finish second in 3:30.28, a result that gave the Mavs the overall team win over BYU as the Cougars took third in 3:30.49.  Utah's top squad finished in 3:27.36 to secure the event and dual win.
 
Matoskova, who led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 200 free on Friday, also turned in another NCAA "B" time of 2:03.89 (2:02.69-converted) to place third in the 200 back while sophomore Olivia Hansson had yet another "B" cut time of 5:05.95 (5:00.95-converted), her third of the weekend, to finish fourth in the 500 free.
 
Freshman Amber Siverts and fifth-year senior transfer Benedict Nagy also turned in impressive runner-up performances to help the Mavs in their history-making day.  Siverts turned in a 200 fly time of 2:07.84 (2:06.64-coverted) and moved into the No. 8 spot of CMU history with what was CMU's fastest time in the event since the 2021 RMAC Championships.
 
Meanwhile, Nagy took fourth in that event with a time of 2:09.18 (2:07.98) to just miss out on a spot on the updated top-10 performers list in program history.  Matoskova was also fifth in the event, touching in 2:10.65.
 
Nagy also finished second in the 200 IM with a time of 2:07.60 (2:06.40-converted), again just missing out of a spot in the Maverick all-time top-10 by just 0.07 seconds.
 
In the diving well, Hurley, a freshman out of Southlake, Texas, scored 401.75 points to break up a 1-5 BYU sweep while surpassing her first career NCAA Championship qualifying standard (390.00).
 
Cheeks also finished second in the men's 3-meter event, scoring 506.00 points to register his second NCAA qualifying score in as many days.
 
Elsewhere, Sampson won the 200 IM in 1:51.19 (1:49.99-converted) before winning his fifth event of the meet in the 200 back with a time of 1:47.35 (1:46.15-converted).  He set four NCAA "B" times during the weekend.
 
Sampson also teamed with Kuba Kiszczak, Dejan Urbanek and Jameson McEnaney for a second place time of 1:29.10 in the 200 medley relay while Kiszczak had a third place time of 45.83 in the 100 free.
 
The Maverick men totaled 13 top-3 finishes throughout the meet, five of which came on Saturday.
 
The Mavericks will continue their season next Saturday competing at the Denver Relays.