GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After winning a national title, it is sometimes hard to set a meaningful goal to work towards.
Colorado Mesa University swimmer
Agata Naskret had no problem with that and set her goal for the 2024-25 season to break the national record.
Goal achieved!
Naskret, who ranked fifth in NCAA Division II history with her 100-yard backstroke national title-winning time of 52.52 seconds coming into the 2024-25 season, obliterated the former mark of 52.07 seconds on Friday night, posting a time of 51.96 seconds, highlighting another strong night of swimming at the TYR/CMU Invitational.
The former mark had been turned in by 2019 National Champion Polina Lapshina of Russia and Queens (N.C.) University.
Naskret's mark is even more impressive considered it was done at altitude and will have her sit at 51.86 seconds on the NCAA Division II Championship qualifying performance list, allowing her to extend her NCAA Division II performance list lead to more than 2 ½ seconds.
Her time was also a pool, school and meet record, breaking her own mark of 53.06 seconds from last year by 1.1 ticks.
The Maverick men's 400 medley relay team also turned in a pair of new records, recording a time of 3:10.93 (3:10.53-altitude adjusted) to finish the men's night on a high note.
Andrew Scoggin,
Forrest Frazier,
Dejan Urbanek and
Harry Stacey combined for that time that went under the former pool and meet record of 3:11.23, set a year ago.
Urbanek had also broke his own school record in the 100 Fly with a time of 47.56 seconds, good for second place in that event.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks were able to win the final five combined events of the night, which allowed the Maverick men to finish the third night of the 4-day meet with 979 points, 358 ½ ahead of second place Wyoming, which has 620 ½ points after winning the first three events. The Colorado School of Mines is third with 401 while a partial Utah team is in fourth with 195 ½ points.
However, the Wyoming women won three of the first four events of the night and moved into the team scoring lead with 764 ½ points, leading CMU by 55 ½. Northern Arizona, which received a 100-yard butterfly win from Elsa Musselman in the first event of the night, is in third with 449 ½ points while Mines is fourth with 300. Utah is fifth with 163 with 12 events (6 men's, 6 women's) to come on Saturday.
Joining Naskret and the men's medley relay team as Friday night winners were
Max Ayres (Men's 100 Brast), Scoggin (100 Back) and the women's medley relay team of Naskret,
Maddi Moran,
Kiara Borchardt and
Ada Qunell.
Ayres took the 100 Breast in 54.16 seconds after posting a career-best time of 53.73 (53.63-converted) in the preliminaries as one of five Mavericks to set the NCAA provisional standard in that discipline throughout the day.
Scoggin was just a single one hundredth of a second off the NCAA Championship automatic standard in the morning prelims with his 100 Back time of 46.43 seconds (46.33-converted) and then followed that up with another strong effort of 46.74 seconds to win in the evening.
The women's 400 Medley Relay team won in 3:39.97, just off their own pool and meet record of 3:39.83 from last year.
The Mavericks were also able to set a ton of NCAA Championship "B" cut marks throughout the day.
In the women's 100 Butterfly, Borchardt finished third in a personal-best 55.44 seconds (55.34-converted), one of those many "B" marks.
Amber Siverts (56.15/56.05-converted) also moved up to fourth in program history after winning the consolation final.
Xander Zappas joined Urbanek as NCAA provisional qualifiers in the men's portion of the event as Urbanek took second behind Wyoming's Gavin Smith, who broke the meet record in the preliminaries. Urbanek's time of 47.56 seconds (47.46-converted) was 0.12 quicker than his former school record set at the 2022 edition of this meet.
Zappas finished third in 48.46 seconds after posting a quicker NCAA provisional qualifying time of 48.20 (48.10-converted) in the morning preliminaries moving to sixth in program history.
Stacey is also now ranked third in CMU history after posting a time of 47.77 (47.67-converted) in a morning time trial.
In the women's 400 individual medley,
Sophia Bains took second in 4:22.81 while
Haven Hinkle improved upon her career-best to win the "B" final in another NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:34.29 (4:24.29-converted).
The Maverick men were especially strong in the men's 400 IM as seven different CMU swimmers surpassed the NCAA "B" standard as the Mavs took second through seventh place to score big points. Freshman
Ben Vester led the way, taking second in 3:56.22 (3:51.22-converted) to move into the No. 3 spot of program history.
Luka Samsonov now ranks fifth after finishing third in 3:58.40 (3:53.40-converted) while
Gavyn Tatge moved into the No. 6 spot of CMU lore after finishing in fourth place with a time of 3:58.60 (3:53.60-converted).
Graduate transfer
Jason McMechan also broke four minutes and now sits ninth in program history with a fifth place time of 3:59.71 (3:54.71-converted).
Jacob Troescher,
Lucas Motley and
Miles Moran all set NCAA provisional times as well.
The Maverick women then had four national provisional qualifiers in the 200 Free as
Katerina Matoskova took second in 1:50.41 (1:49.21-converted) while
Ada Qunell took third in 1:50.49 (1:49.29-converted).
Olivia Hansson, already assured of a national championship appearance in the 500 Free, was fourth in 1:50.74 (1:49.54-converted) and is now eligible to swim in the 200 Free at the NCAA Championships as well.
Hanna Sasivarevic also set a NCAA "B" cut time of 1:53.47 (1:52.27-converted) in the "B" final.
Five Maverick men also turned in provisional qualifying efforts in the 200 Free as
Lucas Viana finished fourth in 1:39.70 (1:38.50-converted).
Jameson McEnaney went even quicker in the preliminaries, touching in 1:39.43 (1:38.23-converted) before finishing sixth in the finals with a time of 1:41.20. Richard Schmeidefeld also set a "B" cut time of 1:39.28 (1:38.-08-converted) in the morning and took seventh at night.
Meanwhile,
Jackson Moe won the consolation final in 1:39.73 (1:38.53-converted) while
Braden Felio finished 11
th overall and third in that race after qualifying in a NCAA "B" cut mark of 1:40.42 (1:39.22-converted).
The Maverick women then picked up a pair of NCAA "B" cut times in the consolation final of the 100 Breaststroke as
Maddi Moran won the heat in 1:03.75 (1:02.55-convrted) ahead of
Kate Speerschneider, who had a faster time trial time earlier in the meet.
The CMU men had four men in the "A" final and went first, third, fifth and seventh with Canadian freshman
Brodie Khajuria took over the No. 5 spot in Maverick history with a third place time of 54.67 (54.57-converted) seconds.
Marcos Otero also set a career-best of 54.81 (54.71-converted) seconds to finish fifth while
Deklan Heinzen touched seventh in 55.22 seconds (55.12-converted) to rank ninth in program history.
Mauricio Posadas also set a "B" cut time of 55.19 (55.09-converted) in the preliminaries.
Naskret's national record was not the only strong performance in the women's 100 Back. Freshman
Taylar Hooton took second in 54.40 (54.30-converted) seconds to take over the No. 3 spot in program history.
Katerina Matoskova, who now ranks fourth also had a season-best and NCAA "B" cut time of 55.64 (55.54-converted) in the morning before taking fifth in 55.68 seconds.
Kate Leary was the next to touch in 55.89 seconds (55.79-converted) and now ranks ninth in CMU history.
Scoggin's 100 Back win, which solidified his No. 2 ranking in CMU history, allowed him to lead four Mavericks in the "A" Final.
Kuba Kiszczak was fourth in 48.82 seconds while
Jeremy Koch (49.91) and
Jacob Sampson (50.46) finished seventh and eighth.
The Mavs then swept the aforementioned 400 medley relays before
Sydnee O'Neil completed the night with a 200 Butterfly Time Trial time of 2:05.68 (2:04.48-converted), eclipsing the provisional national qualification standard.
The meet will finish on Saturday with preliminary heats at 10 a.m. and the final session at 4 p.m., preceded by the Mavs' Senior Day festivities at 3:45.
