GENEVA, Ohio— Colorado Mesa University swimmers swept the 100-yard backstroke titles before punctuating the evening with a relay win for the second straight night as the Mavericks won three more NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championship events on Friday night here at the SPIRE Institute after doing the same on Thursday.
 
Ben Sampson won his third national title in as many nights, winning a thrilling men's 100-yard backstroke title while Agata Naskret became the first Maverick in any sport to win two NCAA Division II titles on the same day, claiming the women's 100 back title in a school record-smashing time of 52.52 seconds.
 
Naskret then led-off CMU's winning 200-yard freestyle relay team as Lauren White, now a 28-time all-American, brought home her first national title as the anchor leg after Ada Qunell and Elli Williams also did their substantial parts on the middle two legs.  Qunell was also on the top spot of the podium after Thursday night's 400 medley relay win while Williams won her first NCAA title.
 
White, who continues to add to her to her claim the most decorated Maverick student-athlete in any sport, at least in terms of all-America honors, also finished a strong third in the 100 back as the Maveric
 
Sampson, who now has a men's record 19 all-America honors, also won his fifth NCAA title over the last two years and will have a chance to equal Maverick diver Ammar Hassan for the CMU all-sports record of six in Saturday's 200-yard backstroke, an event that he holds the NCAA Division II record in.
 
CMU has now won eight event titles over the past three nights alone.
 
The program had won ten through 2023.
 
Naskret, a sophomore from Bydgoszcz, Poland, claimed CMU's first win of the night, taking her individual even while substantially lowering her own hours-old school record of 52.80 from the morning preliminary round.  She also moved into the No. 6 spot of NCAA Division II history after coming into the day leading this year's national performers with a time of 52.92 seconds, which was also a school record before Friday.
 
Meanwhile, White also substantially lowered her personal-best to 53.72 seconds in the final, earning her best ever individual finish at an NCAA Championship.  She ranks second in CMU history behind Naskret.
 
Two heats later, Sampson won a dramatic title in the men's half of the discipline, touching 46.02 seconds ahead of three other contenders, who were spread by just six one hundredths of a second between 46.13 and 46.19 seconds.  He had won the 200 and 400 individual medleys on Wednesday and Thursday nights and can earn a clean sweep of individual titles if he can defend his title in Saturday's 200 backstroke.
 
At the end of the night, Naskret posted a phenomenal school-record 50 free time of 22.81 seconds as the lead-off leg of the winning relay squad.  Qunell then kept the Mavs in contention before Williams, who held the 50 free record of 23.01 coming into the day after tying for sixth in the 50 free on Wednesday night, brought the Mavericks into a tie for the lead with Delta State at the final exchange with a 22.68 relay split.
 
White then delivered the Mavericks' title over the final 50 with a split of 22.54 seconds as she out-dueled Statesman sophomore Kaley Davis by 0.12 seconds, the final margin of victory.
 
CMU finished in 1:31.26, well under the Mavericks' Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title winning and school record time of 1:31.83.
 
That relay win helped the Mavericks finish the night with 332 ½ team points, which is already 7 ½ more than they earned at the 2023 national championships en-route to a fourth place finish, a program record that is likely to be surpassed again on Saturday.
 
The Mavs are solidly in second place behind defending national champion Nova Southeastern (381) and earned some breathing room above third place Drury, which suffered a disqualification in the relay, keeping the Panthers with 287 ½ points.
 
On the men's side, the Mavericks remained in fifth place with 206 points.
 
The national title wins were certainly a big part of the night, but far from what was an overall strong day of performances which saw the Mavericks earn 19 combined all-America certificates in nine of the 11 events contested during the day.
 
CMU had eight athletes qualify for the championship finals in the preliminaries while placing three others in the consolation finals.
 
Sophomore Olivia Hansson opened the night placing fifth in the women's 500 free with a time of 4:51.42. She now has two all-America honors this week, doubling her career total to four.
 
Now 13-time all-American Katerina Matoskova then finished 15^th overall and seventh in the consolation final of the 100 back with a time of 55.31, moments before Naskret's victory and White's third place finish.
 
Andrew Scoggin then set a personal-best time of 47.37 seconds to place second in the consolation final of the men's 100 backstroke, good for eight tenth place points.  Scoggin is now a 4-time all-American.
 
Kuba Kiszczak was also in that race, placing 12^th in 47.73 to earn his first of two all-America honors of the night.  He now has four this week and 11 his career.
 
Action the moved to the 100 breaststroke as Maddi Moran, a member of the Mavs' 400 medley relay winning team on Friday, recorded a fifth place finish in 1:02.05, just off her preliminary round time of 1:02.00, a new personal best.  Moran is now a 4-time all-American.
 
In the women's 200 butterfly, Benedict Nagy took fourth in 1:58.63, matching her preliminary round and school record setting time.  Nagy, who won the 200 and 400 individual medley titles on the previous two nights has now claimed four first team all-America honors so far this week, finishing second and fourth in her two non-winning events.
 
Meanwhile, Dejan Urbanek then claimed a seventh place finish in the men's 200 fly, touching in 1:46.65.  He now has 11 career all-America certificates to his credit, including three this season.
 
Diving great Isaiah Cheeks then capped his 8-time all-America career with a sixth place finish in the men's 3-meter diving event.  He scored 538.40 points in the finals after recording 561.20 in the preliminaries.  Cheeks was also the 2022 NCAA Division II Champion in the event and has now finished in the top eight of an NCAA Championship event, an incredible seven times, including in each of the last six.
 
The Maverick men then capped the night by finishing tenth in the 200 free relay.  Freshman Jameson McEnaney led the Mavericks off in 20.06 seconds, a new personal-best 50 free time, before Kiszczak, Austin Patterson and Scoggin all turned in sub 20-second splits as the Mavs posted a time of 1:19.40.  Patterson, CMU's relay only swimmer, earned his initial all-America honor as part of the effort while McEnaney now has two all-America honors to his credit this week.