COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's swimming & diving team has been selected as an overwhelming favorite to win a seventh straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title according to the conference's preseason coaches poll, which was released by conference officials on Wednesday.
The Mavericks received seven first place votes from the eight that they were eligible to receive and topped the poll with 63 points.
Simon Fraser claimed the remaining two first place votes in the poll and is second in the poll with 54 points. Colorado School of Mines, which took second at last year's RMAC Championships, was right behind the Red Leafs with 52 points while Oklahoma Christian (45), Western Colorado (32), UT Permian Basin (27), CSU Pueblo (24), Nebraska-Kearney (18) and Adams State (9) rounded out the poll.
Each of the league's nine head coaches, including sixth-year Maverick leader
Mickey Wender, ranked their opposition 1-8 without voting for their own squads.
The Mavs won 15 events and took 36 total medals at last year's RMAC Championships to win their a conference-record setting sixth straight conference title with 1,221 points, good for a nearly 600 point win over Mines, who scored 637 ½ to edge the Red Leafs, who were third with 626 ½.
The rest of the conference won 27 medals combined a year ago.
The Mavs then went on to win seven events, including three relays, at the 2024 NCAA Division II National Championships while finishing a program-best second in the final team standings. CMU had placed fourth at the 2023 national meet.
Wender was named as the CSCAA and RMAC Coach of the Year in 2024.
He and the Mavericks welcome back 5-event national champion
Agata Naskret, the 2024 RMAC Swimmer of the Year, one of eight returning all-Americans on this year's Maverick roster. The Mavs also return four other swimmers who were on the Mavs' national championship relay teams in
Kiara Borchardt,
Maddi Moran,
Ada Qunell and
Elli Williams, who were also all-Americans in other individual events.
On the diving side, the Mavericks return 2024 RMAC Diver of the Year
Jenna Hurley, who is now a sophomore. Hurley and
Kenya Meyer, who returns for her junior season, also split RMAC Championship Diver of the Meet honors after each won an event at last year's RMAC Championships.
CMU's men were also a unanimous RMAC favorite in their preseason poll, which was released on Tuesday.
The Mavericks have already begun their 2024-25 season in strong fashion, hosting the Intermountain Shootout on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. They extended their 9-year old RMAC Dual Meet winning streak to 36 with wins over CSU Pueblo in both of the weekend meets and were able to topple NCAA Division I and Big 12 Conference foe Utah for the first time in program history.
The Mavs will host another Division I opponent next Saturday (Oct. 26) when they take on Wyoming in a 1 p.m. dual. They will also be at home for the TYR/CMU Invitational from Nov. 20-23 and will then once again play host to the RMAC Championships in the El Pomar Natatorium from Feb. 11-15.
