GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's swimming & diving team will take on another Mountain West Conference and NCAA Division I foe this weekend when the Mavericks travel to Fort Collins for a weekend dual at Colorado State University.
 
Swimming events will begin at Noon on Saturday in the Rams' Moby Pool.  Live results can be seen with a subscription to Meet Mobile.  There will not be a live stream.
 
The Maverick men will also be in action on Saturday, but will compete at Denver as CSU does not have a men's program.
 
Early Start
 
Although the bulk of the dual will be on Saturday in Fort Collins, the dual will actually begin on Friday when the Maverick divers will meet up with their Ram and Denver University Pioneer counterparts at Denver's El Pomar Natatorium on Friday at 11:30 a.m.  The scores from the 1 and 3-meter diving events will then be included in the overall dual results for Saturday.
 
Meet Format
 
The dual will feature 16 events, including 14 swimming events on Saturday and the aforementioned diving events on Friday.  Two of the swimming events in the 800-yard freestyle and 100 individual medley are non-championship and rarely contested events.  The full event schedule can be seen below.
 
Points in each individual event will be awarded on a 9-4-3-2-1 basis in the individual events and on a 11-4-2 scoring structure for the relay events.  Teams are limited to three scorers in each individual event and to two scoring relays but can enter as many individuals and relays as they wish.
 
Individual swimmers are allowed to score in four events each day and are further limited to three individual events.
 
The full swimming event schedule can be seen below.
 
200 Medley Relay
800 Free
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
400 Free
100 Fly
100 IM
200 Free Relay
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks hosted Division I Wyoming in a Saturday afternoon dual.  The women fell to the Cowgirls, 185-115.  Despite the defeat, there were numerous bright spots for the Mavericks, who combined to set six total NCAA Division II Championship "B" cut times while winning four events.  The Mavericks also had two divers in Jenna Hurley and Kenya Meyer surpass the NCAA Championship qualification standards.
 
The Mavs got off to a good start as Agata Naskret, Maddi Moran, Kiara Borchardt and Ada Qunell won the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:43.08.  Naskret (100 Back) and Borchardt (100 Fly) also went on to win individual events and were joined as winners by Sophia Bains, who took the 200 IM.  Qunell also set a NCAA "B" cut time of 1:52.55 (altitude-adjusted) in the 200 Free, joining Olivia Hansson, who went under the "B" standards in three different events, including the 500 Free with a season-best time of 5:01.20 (converted).  Freshman Kendyll Wilkinson was quicker than both in the 200 Free as well, taking second place in that event with a converted time of 1:52.06.
 
The Maverick men claimed their first dual meet win over the Cowboys in dominant fashion, 203-97.
 
Top 10
 
The Maverick women lead the NCAA Division II Top Times list in both the 400 Medley Relay and the 100 Back and have swimmers ranked amongst the nation's top 11 in different championship events thus far in 2024-25.
 
Here's a look at those swimmers and their national ranks and altitude-adjusted times.
 
200 Free- 8. Kendyll Wilkinson (1:52.06)
500 Free- 7. Olivia Hansson (5:01.20)
1000 Free- 3. Hansson (10:14.49)
100 Back- 1. Agata Naskret (55.23)
100 Breast- 10. Maddi Moran (1:04.08)
200 Fly- 9. Hansson (2:05.15)
400 IM- 6. Sophia Bains (4:31.64)
200 Free Relay- 5. 1:35.71
400 Free Relay- 2. 3:37.67
200 Medley Relay- 2. 1:43.08
400 Medley Relay- 1. 3:44.74
 
About the Rams
 
The Rams competed in their first dual of the season, falling 141 ½-120 ½ to Washington State at home.
 
The see-saw dual saw six Moby Pool records fall as the Cougars won the final three races to pull out the victory.
 
The Rams had earlier won six of the 14 swimming events as Tess Whineray and Erin Dawson both winning two.  They also teamed with Katie Flynn and Lexie Trietley to set a 200 medley pool record time of 1:42.77.  Whineray won the 100 back in a pool-record time of 54.74 seconds.
 
CSU had opened the season at the Front Range Invite on Oct. 4-5, which Air Force hosted.  They finished fourth out of five teams with 711 points, finishing behind the hosts (878), Wyoming (837) and Denver (731.5) but well ahead of Northern Colorado (394.5).
 
The Rams will be at Denver for a Friday afternoon dual before taking on the Mavs.
 
They went 8-2 in duals last year and took third at the Mountain West Conference Championships.
 
Series History
 
The Mavericks have never defeated the Rams in eight previous all-time dual meet meetings.  They have never competed in Fort Collins.  Six of the previous match-ups have been in Grand Junction during Mavs' annual Intermountain Shootout.
 
They last met the Rams on Nov. 5, 2021, falling 227-71 to the Rams in a double-dual with Wyoming in Laramie.  CSU also won a 277-133 match-up that year as part of the Intermountain Shootout just a month earlier on Oct. 1, 2021.
 
In the polls
 
On Oct. 18, the Maverick women were selected first in the initial CSCAA NCAA Division II Top 25 Dual Meet Poll of the 2024-25 season.  The CMU men were slotted sixth.
 
The monthly polls are conducted by 11-member committees of CSCAA member coaches.  The committees evaluate and ranks the nation's top 25 dual meet teams based on several factors. These include head-to-head dual meet results, performances since the last rankings, season-long achievements, dual meet records, roster changes (such as injuries), and data from the SwimCloud Simulator. It's important to note that the poll is not intended to predict top finishers in a championship meet format.
 
Top of the Group
 
Earlier last week, both Maverick squads were picked first in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Preseason Coaches' Polls.  The Mavericks will be gunning for their seventh straight RMAC title sweep when they host the RMAC Championships in February.
 
CMU's men were a unanimous selection at the top of the poll, claiming all five possible first place votes to top the poll with 25 points.
 
CMU's women received seven first place votes from the eight they were eligible to receive and topped their poll with 63 points.
 
A look back to 2023-24
 
The Mavericks continued to climb the national ladder, recording their best national championship performances in March.
 
The Maverick women combined to win seven events, including three relays, at the NCAA Division II National Championships and took a program-best second place in the final standings at the national meet.  The Maverick men matched their best ever effort with a fifth place finish.  They also set a new program record for national championship team points with 279 and received four individual national championship performances from Ben Sampson.
 
At the conference level, the Mavericks swept the RMAC team titles for the sixth consecutive year while dominating the meet.  The Mavs won 30 of the 42 events throughout the meet, taking all ten relays and all four diving events.
 
Award-Winners
 
Fittingly, the Mavericks brought in quite a haul of post-season awards at both the national and conference level last year.
 
Mickey Wender was named as the CSCAA (College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America)'s NCAA Division II Women's Swimming Coach of the Year while Ben Sampson was named as the National Men's Swimmer of the Year for the consecutive year after winning all four of his individual events, two with national record times.
 
Sampson was also named as the RMAC Men's Swimmer of the Year for the third consecutive year while diving teammate Isaiah Cheeks claimed the conference's men's diver of the year award for the third straight season as well.
 
Agata Naskret, who won a CMU all-sports record five national titles in the same year, was named as the RMAC Women's Swimmer of the Year while Jenna Hurley claimed the RMAC Women's Diver of the Year award.
 
Jameson McEnaney was also tabbed as the RMAC Men's Freshman of the Year while Wender claimed RMAC Women's Coach of the Year honors as well.
 
Record Setting Relays
 
The Mavericks re-wrote much of their record book in 2023-24, setting new school records in all ten relay events at least once during the year.  Six of the ten current records were set during the NCAA Division II National Championships, where the Mavs won their first three relay titles in program history, taking the 400 Medley, 200 Free and 400 Free Relay titles on the women's side.
 
National Champions
 
The Mavericks swam to 11 national championships in 2023-24 after winning three events in the previous two years, their first swimming national titles.  The Maverick men have also won seven national diving event crowns since 2018.
 
The Mavericks will return one of their three individual national champions from 2024 in Agata Naskret, who won both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke titles, doing so with school-record times.
 
Naskret was also a member of all three of the aforementioned championship winning relay teams, which all set school-records as well.
 
In total, the Mavericks return ten of the combined 12 legs from those relay teams this year.  Ada Qunell was also a member of all three winning relays while Elli Williams swam on the 200 and 400 Free teams.  Maddi Moran and Kiara Borchardt were the middle breaststroke and butterfly legs on the 400 Medley Relay squad.
 
However, the Mavs will have to replace some of the greatest swimmers in program history, who won titles last year.  Lauren White anchored the 200 and 400 Free Relay teams and ended her 5-year CMU career with 30 all-America honors.
 
The Mavs also graduated 200 and 400 IM champion Benedict Nagy, who is now a volunteer assistant coach for the Mavs after using her fifth year of eligibility with the Mavs.  On the men's side, the Mavs will have to replace Ben Sampson, who completed his bachelor's degree and his 4-year Maverick career with six national titles amongst a multitude of honors.  Sampson is now using his COVID waiver and fifth season of eligibility at Division I Power Texas, under the direction of Coach Bob Bowman.
 
National Championship Run
 
Excluding, 2020 when the national championship meet was canceled 1 ½ days in due to the initial stages of the COVID pandemic, the Mavericks have won at least one national championship event every year since 2018, a streak they will hope to continue into 2025.
 
All-American List
 
The Mavericks roster or returning all-Americans is quite lengthy and impressive.
 
The Mavericks had 21 different individuals combine for 77 CSCAA All-America honors at last year's championships.  The Mavericks return 15 of those people to this year's roster and have 19 total returning all-Americans on this year's roster, including four who earned honors in 2023.
 
The returning group from 2024 earned a combined total of 55 all-America honors last year, 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 2024 and the total number in their career.
 
Women
Sophia Bains (2/3)
Kiara Borchardt (3/6)
Olivia Hansson (2/5)
Katerina Matoskova (8/14)
Maddi Moran (4/5)
Agata Naskret (7/7)
Ada Qunell (5/9)
Elli Williams (4/4)
 
Men
Max Ayres (2/2)
Wyatt Hermanson (0/2)
Kuba Kiszczak (5/12)
Matheus Laperriere (0/7)
Jameson McEnaney (4/4)
Jackson Moe (0/1)
Marcos Otero (1/1)
Austin Patterson (1/1)
Andrew Scoggin (4/5)
Dejan Urbanek (3/11)
Dawson Wilson (0/2)
 
RMAC Dual Streak
 
The Maverick women extended their RMAC dual meet winning streak to 36 with the convincing 174-27 and 174-26 wins over CSU Pueblo on both dates of the Intermountain Shootout weekend.
 
CMU's dual meet winning streak dates back nearly nine years to Jan. 22, 2016.
 
Those two decisions over CSU Pueblo are the only RMAC duals on the Mavs' 2024-25 schedule, which will be almost entirely against NCAA Division I competition in the leadup to the RMAC and NCAA Division II Championships.
 
The Maverick men are not slated to have any duals against RMAC foes this season.  They have won 13 straight RMAC duals since the 2016-17 season.
 
Division I Schedule
 
As in recent years, Maverick Head Coach Mickey Wender has built a schedule that will pit the Mavericks against many of the top programs in the Mountain Time Zone and the Western United States as a whole.  The Mavericks are slated to compete against NCAA Division I foes in each of their eight regular season meets leading into the RMAC and NCAA Division II Championships.
 
The Mavericks have already faced off with BYU, Utah and Wyoming, claiming one win over the Utah Utes.
 
Utah, Wyoming and Northern Arizona are amongst the teams that will compete in CMU's TYR Invitational from Nov. 20-23, CMU's next meet.
 
The Mavs will then head to the UNLV Invitational before the holiday break from Dec. 16-18 before coming back from the break to face Utah on Jan. 10.  The Mavs will then wrap up the pre-championship season at the Air Force Dual Meet Invitational, which has now been moved back a week to Jan. 24-25
 
The Maverick divers have also recently added Northern Arizona's Lumberjack Diving Invitational (Nov. 21-23) and the Air Force Diving Invitational (Jan. 30-Feb. 1) to their schedule.
 
The Friendly Confines
 
The Mavericks will once again host the RMAC Championships, doing so for the sixth straight year in February (Feb. 11-15).
 
The Mavs also hosted the championship meet for five straight years from 2013-17 after first hosting in 2011.
 
Including the RMAC Championships and this week's two meets, the Mavericks are slated to take full advantage of the top-level El Pomar Natatorium, as they will home for six different meets this year.