GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University swimming and diving teams combined to win the final seven events while recording medal sweeps in two of them.  They also set three new Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship records in Wednesday night action at the El Pomar Natatorium.
 
In the process, the Maverick teams extended their team scoring leads in their bid for a sixth consecutive RMAC title sweep.
 
Sophomore diver Kenya Meyer, national superstar Ben Sampson and the women's 200-yard medley relay squad of Agata Naskret, Maddi Moran, Kiara Borchardt and Elli Williams all set new championship records while Williams also took down the CMU record in the 50 free to win that event as well.
 
Benedict Nagy (women's 200 IM), freshman Jameson McEnaney (men's 50 free) and the men's 200 medley relay team of Andrew Scoggin, Max Ayres, Dejan Urbanek and Kuba Kiszczak also claimed gold medals for the Mavs.
 
The CMU women, ranked first in Division II, also had 1-2-3 finishes in both the 50 free and the 1-meter diving competitions.  They now have 366 team points after the second of five days of competition, good for a 171 ½-point lead over second place Colorado School of Mines (194 ½).  Simon Fraser is just 12 points further back in the 9-team field with 182 ½.
 
Meanwhile, the fifth-ranked Maverick men, have now scored 288 points and lead Oklahoma Christian (196) by 92.  Mines is third in the 6-team field with 194.
 
The evening action was intense from the start as Simon Fraser's Tori Meklensek pulled away from Maverick sophomore Olivia Hansson in the final quarter of the 1,000 freestyle to win the Canadian school's first RMAC event title.  Meklensek finished in 10:08.42 while Hansson set a season-best time of 10:12.62 (10:01.22-altitude adjusted) to claim the silver while both moved into the top five of the season-long NCAA Division II performers list pending other conference championship results.
 
Meklensek and Hansson were nearly even for the first 750 yards, with Hansson holding a slight lead through 650 before the Red Leaf junior surged late to claim the win.
 
Meanwhile, Maverick freshman Sydnee O'Neil won the bronze medal in 10:21.09 (10:09.69-converted) and moved up to fourth in program history while likely earning a national championship trip.
 
Teammate Gabriella Stanton also set a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 10:28.87 (10:17.47-converted) as an exhibition swimmer during the preliminary session portion of the event.  She now ranks eighth in CMU history, the spot O'Neil held before the day. 
 
Hansson had won the 2023 RMAC title as a freshman with a school-record time of 10:06.21 (9:54.81-converted).
 
The Maverick women then went 1-2-5 in the 200 individual medley as Nagy, a graduate transfer from the University of Nevada, won her first individual and second overall title of the week in 2:00.63, which extends her NCAA Division II lead to 1:59.43 with the altitude conversion.  Junior teammate Sophia Bains took the silver in 2:02.55 (2:01.35-converted) and moved up a spot to fourth in CMU history.  Sophomore Tori Bartusiak also reached the final and placed fifth in 2:06.42 (2:05.22-converted) to take over the No. 8 spot in program history as all three Mavs set improved NCAA "B" cut times.
 
The Mavs were even stronger in the 50 free as Williams led the CMU medal sweep in a school-record smashing time of 23.09 seconds to win her second of now three career RMAC titles.  Naskret was second in a season-best time of 23.28 while former record holder Ada Qunell was third in 23.41.  Lauren White also reached the championship final, placing eighth in 23.69 seconds while Izzy Powers won the consolation final in 23.82.
 
The Mavs then scored yet another medal sweep in the diving well as Meyer won her second career RMAC title with an 11-dive score of 470.70 points in the final, breaking Brittany Dixon's championship meet record of 461.55 points, set five years to the day.  The sophomore out of Billings, Montana, won the 3-meter title as a freshman in 2023.
 
Meanwhile, Maverick freshman Jenna Hurley, who led Meyer by 2.5 points in the preliminaries, claimed the silver medal with a score of 448.50 while Mimi Licht took third and the bronze with 400.20 points. 
 
Ally Hrncir also set an NCAA qualifying score of 407.85 points as an exhibition diver in the preliminaries.
 
The CMU women then completed their night with the 200 medley relay record time of 1:40.82, nearly a second quicker than last year's record-setting winning time of 1:41.74.  Naskret and Moran both won their first RMAC golds in the process while Borchardt now has four RMAC titles to her credit.
 
The Maverick "B" squad of Kate Leary, Juliette Benson, Bartusiak and Powers also won their heat in 1:43.92, which was the second fastest overall amongst all 16 units.  However, they placed tenth officially as all of the "A" teams are positioned ahead of the "B" squads by championship protocols.
 
The Maverick men were nearly as strong throughout the night as Sampson's championship record 200 IM time highlighted a strong effort in that event and the session overall.  He finished in 1:45.61, nearly two seconds faster than Oklahoma Christian's JT Amrein, who had set a championship record of 1:47.06 in the morning preliminaries.
 
Sampson has now won 17 RMAC titles in his career.
 
Meanwhile, five other Mavs set new or improved NCAA provisional qualifying times in the event.  Kuba Kiszczak finished fifth in a season-best 1:49.04 (1:47.84-converted) while Mauricio Posadas was sixth in 1:49.75 (1:48.55-converted) to move into the No. 6 spot of CMU history.
 
Ayres, a freshman, also reached the final, placing eighth in 1:50.63 (1:49.43-converted) after John Walgast and Marcos Otero set even quicker times in the consolation final.  Walgast was second in the heat and tenth overall in 1:50.11 (1:48.81-converted) to rank ninth in program history, one spot ahead of Otero, who touched next in 1:50.23 (1:49.03-converted).
 
The Mavs were also quite good in the 50 free as McEnaney won his first RMAC title, sprinting to a time of 20.18 seconds to edge top-seeded Gabe Knaut of Oklahoma Christian by 0.02 seconds.  The Charlotte, Vermont native, now ranks sixth in CMU history.
 
Junior Austin Patterson also won his first career RMAC medal, placing third in 20.50 while Aziz Ghaffari was fourth in 20.60.  Andre Scoggin was also in a 3-way tie for sixth at 20.66 while Jackson Moe won the consolation final to place ninth overall in 20.81 seconds.
 
Scoggin, Ayres, Urbanek and Kiszczak then won the men's 200 medley relay in 1:27.27 as Scoggin claimed his second career RMAC relay title while Ayres won his first.  Urbanek now has two relay wins this year and is an 8-time overall RMAC champion while Kiszczak now has three career RMAC relay titles to his credit.
 
Jeremy Koch, Posadas, Walgast and Paterson also combined for a time of 1:29.54 to win the "B" heat with what was the third fastest overall time.
 
Earlier, the Mavs picked up two top 5 finishes in the 1,000 free as Gavin Anderson took fourth in a fast-paced race, touching in a career-best 9:25.40 (9:14.00-converted), a second faster than his 2022 RMAC Championship runner-up time.  He had also won the 2021 title and placed second in 2023.  He also put himself in the conversation for national championship qualification.  Jacob Troescher also had a NCAA "B" cut time of 9:29.89, but just off his season-best of 9:16.45 even with the altitude conversion.