GENEVA, Ohio— Colorado Mesa University's Ben Sampson won his fourth NCAA Division II individual title in as many nights, capping a phenomenal championship meet on Saturday night here at the SPIRE Institute by breaking his own NCAA Division II all-time record while defending his crown in the 200-yard backstroke.
 
Sampson, who won his sixth NCAA title in the last two years to join former Maverick diving great Ammar Hassan as the only CMU student-athletes in any sport to win six NCAA titles, touched in one minute, 40.34 seconds to win by 1.25 seconds, breaking the 10-year old NCAA Championship record of 1:40.74, formerly held by Queens' (N.C.) Matthew Josa.  His Saturday night time also lowered his own official NCAA Division II record of 1:40.73, set at altitude in CMU's home pool in November, 2022.
 
The Arvada, Colorado native, who walked-on to the Maverick program for the 2020-21 season, also helped the Mavs finish fourth in the meet-capping 400 free relay and finishes the meet with the maximum seven possible all-America honors for the third straight year.  All of his 2024 honors were of the first team nature, plaudits that go to the top eight finishers in each event.
 
Sampson now has 21 such honors, the most of any CMU male student-athlete, and has the inside track to being named as the NCAA Division II National Swimmer of the Year for the second straight year after winning two titles in 2023.  He was the only man in the national meet to win four individual titles this year, winning the 200 and 400-yard individual medleys on Wednesday and Thursday before turning his attention to his best stroke to win the 100 and 200-yard backstrokes on Friday and Saturday.
 
He had also set NCAA Division II all-time and championship records in the 400-yard individual medley.
 
Sampson had won the 200 IM and 200 back titles in 2023.
 
In the process, Sampson scored 80 team points in his four individual events another 20 ½ when accounting for his share of the Mavs' 82 points in his three relays while leading the Mavericks to their second straight fifth-place team finish. 
 
The Mavs tallied 279 points throughout the week, breaking their program record of 274 ½ from a year ago.
 
CMU's women also won four individual and seven total titles throughout the week, claiming a program-record second place finish as a team.
 
Five other Maverick men also earned points on Saturday.
 
Freshman Jameson McEnaney was the first to do so, placing tenth in the 100-yard freestyle with a consolation final time of 43.53 seconds to break Sampson's Maverick standard of 43.63.  The Charlotte, Vermont native then went even quicker with a relay lead-off split of 43.41 seconds in the 400 free relay, further lowering the CMU record.
 
Sampson, who had an equally impressive 42.71 second split, Kuba Kiszczak and Aziz Ghaffari then brought the Mavs home in a school-record smashing time of 2:53.21 as the top four teams were separated by just four tenths of a second at the wall.
 
Kiszczak claimed five all-America honors this week and now has a dozen in his career. 
 
Ghaffari, a graduate transfer from Florida State, claimed four this week after winning one in the 800 free relay at the Division I level as a Seminole.  The Tunisian had also competed in the 100 free prelims during the morning session, placing 21^st with a time of 43.87 seconds to move into third in CMU history behind McEnaney and Sampson.
 
Minutes before Sampson's win, teammate and training partner Andrew Scoggin won the consolation final in 1:44.12 to place ninth.  He finished with four second all-America honors this week, finishing in the top 10 in all four of his events.
 
The Mavs also picked up a tenth place finish from freshman Marcos Otero in the 200 breaststroke.  The El Paso, Texas native broke his own school-record with a time of 1:57.02 to do so, earning his first all-America certificate after 36^th (200 IM) and 26^th (100 Breast) place finishes earlier in the week.
 
In other action, Luka Samsonov placed 19^th in the 200 back prelims with a time of 1:46.92 while Gavin Anderson did the same in the 1,650 free, which saw the lower seeds swim at the end of the preliminary session.  Anderson was clocked in 15:42.09 while fellow distance freestyler Jacob Troescher placed 27^th in 15:53.39.