LAS VEGAS— 2024 will always be a memorable year for Colorado Mesa University freshman Harry Stacey, who capped it by breaking his own weeks-old school record while moving into the NCAA Division II performance list lead in the final heat of the calendar year for the Maverick swimming and diving team on Wednesday here in the final event of the UNLV FINIS Invitational.
 
Competing in the Paris Olympics in July for the nation of Ghana, Stacey stamped his year five months in December with a national-leading time and national championship automatic qualifying time of 42.84 seconds on his 100-yard freestyle lead-off leg helping the Maverick men win the 400 free relay in a season-best time of 2:54.15, third fastest in Division II this season.

Stacey's time also ranks him ninth in Division II history after he had previously set the CMU record of 42.95 (altitude-adjusted) at last month's TYR/CMU Invitational.
 
That relay win was one of three that the Maverick swimmers claimed on the final day of the meet as they solidified their strong finishes in the 3-day, mostly Division I meet.
 
The Maverick men, ranked first in the NCAA Division II Swimcloud rankings, finished with 867 points to take second in the 7-team standings ahead of four Division I squads and behind only the host Rebels, who finished with 979.  The Mavs were 262 ½ ahead of third place Cal Poly and the rest of the field.
 
The Maverick women also remained in fourth place in the final team standings, scoring 508 ½ points throughout the meet, well more than Division I foes Cal Baptist (280), Pacific (217) and Cal Poly (189) as well as Division III Linfield.
 
No. 25 ranked UCLA easily won the meet with 1,314 ½ points, easily out-pointing the hosts (785) and Wyoming (639).
 
Although Stacey's and the relay effort with Jameson McEnaney, Marcos Otero and Andrew Scoggin punctuated the night, it was far from the only highlight of the final session as Agata Naskret and Dejan Urbanek won the women's 200 backstroke and men's 200 butterfly, respectively.
 
Scoggin, who won a meet-high four events, including three relays throughout the meet, also added a second place finish in the men's 200 back after Stacey did the same in the individual 100 Free while Olivia Hansson, Jacob Troescher and Forrest Frazier all added third place finishes.
 
Naskret, already the Division II leader and reigning national champion, won her event in 1:56.49 while Katerina Matoskova also reached the "A" final, taking sixth in 2:00.53 after qualifying out of the morning preliminary heats in 2:00.12.
 
The Mavs also picked up points from the "B" Final as Kate Leary, Sofia Shuler and Sophia Bains all scored.
 
Meanwhile, Scoggin clocked a solid time of 1:44.90 in the men's "A" final, which also included Luka Samsonov, who finished eighth in 1:50.83 after qualifying in 1:49.52.  Jackson Moe also finished 13^th in 1:51.34 while swimming in the "B" Final.  Richard Schmiedefeld also posted a morning preliminary time of 1:48.42 to move into the No. 10 spot of program history but scratched out of the finals.
 
In his men's 200 Fly win, Urbanek set a season-best and improved NCAA Championship "B" time of 1:45.84, moving up to fifth in the national rankings.  Jason McMechan also fared well in the event, placing tenth in 1:50.53, while Gavyn Tatge scored a point after turning in a morning prelim time of 1:52.78.
 
Hansson started the night with a strong third place time of 17:03.62 in the women's 1,650 freestyle while teammate Sydnee O'Neil finished fifth in 17:10.57, a NCAA "B" Cut time that moved her all the way to fifth on CMU's all-time performers chart that Hansson leads.
 
Hanna Sasivarevic (17:25.45) and Haven Hinkle (17:36.31) also scored, placing ninth and 11^th, respectively.
 
The Maverick men were just as impressive in the mile as the Mavs had four of the top 12 finishers, a group led by Troescher, who took third in 15:35.55.  Gavin Anderson (15:46.31) and Braden Felio (15:46.90) then touched together in fifth and sixth while Tatge took tenth in 16:03.42.
 
Freshman Taylar Hooton then took seventh in the women's 100 individual medley with a time of 58.07 seconds.  Kate Speerschneider was also one of three Mavs who qualified for the "B" final.  She won that heat to place ninth overall in an even quicker time of 57.26 seconds, just 0.29 off the Maverick school record, held by 2-event national champion Benedict Nagy from last year's UNLV Invitational.
 
Max Ayres then led three Maverick scorers in the men's half of the event, placing seventh in 50.45 seconds.
 
Later, Ada Qunell shared the "B" final win in the women's 100 free with a time 51.09 seconds while Kendyll Wilkinson set a NCAA "B" Cut time of 51.47 seconds in the bonus "C" final.
 
Stacey then posted a solid time of 43.13 seconds in the men's "A" final, to take second, a preview of what we would do during the relay.  McEnaney was also in the final, taking seventh in 44.90 seconds after qualifying in the morning with a quicker time of 44.48.
 
Sophomore Antonia Leese then won the "B" final of the women's 200 breaststroke in 2:19,75 before Frazier, the Mavs' new 100 breaststroke school record holder, moved into the No. 3 spot of program history in the 200 with his runner-up and NCAA "B" provisional qualifying time of 1:58.15.
 
CMU's Deklan Heinzen and Otero were also in the "A" Final.  Heinzen finished fifth in 2:03.00 after setting a time of 2:01.39 in the prelims.  Otero took sixth in 2:03.45 after touching in 2:01.48 in the morning.
 
The Maverick women then tallied seven points in the 200 fly as Kiara Borchardt finished 12^th in 2:05.74 while Tori Bartusiak finished 16^th after setting a time of 2:05.76 in the morning.
 
After Urbanek's win in the men's half of the event, the women's 400 free relay team of Naskret, Wilkinson, Elli Williams and Qunell finished seventh in 3:25.18 before Stacey and the men claimed their relay win.
 
Two Maverick divers were also in action earlier in the day as Ty Mitton and Jenna Hurley both took seventh in their respective events.  Mitton scored 265.20 points on six dives in the men's 3-meter competition while Hurley tallied 223.25 points in the women's 1-meter.  Both had qualified eighth in Tuesday's preliminary round.
 
The Mavericks will return to dual-meet action in the new year, traveling to take on the Utah Utes on Jan. 10 in Salt Lake City.