GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's swimming and diving team will face an early season test when they travel to Fort Collins and the Eldora Pool Ice Center (EPIC) for a Friday afternoon triangular against a pair of in-state NCAA Division I foes.
 
The Mavericks, ranked second in the CSCAA's initial NCAA Division II Top 25 Dual Meet Poll of the 2025-26 season, will compete in their first two duals of the young season against the host Colorado State Rams (0-0) as well as the Denver Pioneers (0-3) in a 16-event double-dual format, beginning at 2 p.m.
 
Live results can be accessed with a subscription through the MeetMobile app.
 
A free live stream will also be available on the Mountain West Network at https://csurams.com/sports/2017/7/28/mountain-west-network
 
Meet Format & Event List
 
Friday's competition will be in a 3-in-1 as each team will contest a dual meet against each of the other two foes.  A total of 16 events, including two swimming relays at the start and end, 12 individual swimming events and both 1 and 3-meter diving will be contested.
 
The relay events will be scored on a 7-0 basis in each dual while the individual events will be scored on a 5-3-1 basis with a limit of two scorers per team.
 
Here's the complete event list:

1. 200 Medley Relay
2. 1000 Free
3. 200 Free
4. 100 Back
5. 100 Breast
6. 200 Fly
7. 50 Free
8. 1M Diving
9. 100 Free
10. 200 Back
11. 200 Breast
12. 500 Free
13. 100 Fly
14. 3M Diving
15. 200 IM
16. 400 Free Relay

Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks opened their season earlier this month, hosting BYU and Adams State in the Intermountain Shootout meets on Oct. 3-4.  Each of the meets were scored in an invitational-style scoring format.
 
The Mavericks took second in both, falling shy of Division I and Big 12 Conference BYU while finishing well ahead of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Adams State.

Olvia Hansson won three events throughout the weekend, claiming both the 200 and 1,000 freestyle in the Friday evening affair as the Mavericks battled to a 224-206 decision against BYU as Adams State was a distant third with 15 points on the first day.
 
The Mavericks then won three more events in the Saturday contest as Hansson won the 500 free while Antonia Leese took the 50 Breast.  Kenya Meyer also won the 3-meter diving event.  BYU scored 226 1/2 points to win that meet while the Mavs scored 203 1/2.  Adams State was third with 34.
 
Full recaps and links to results from both meets can be seen here: Day 1 (Friday) | Day 2 (Saturday)
 
Split Squad
 
The Maverick men will not compete on Friday, but instead will take on the Colorado School of Mines in a RMAC dual on Saturday in Golden.
 
Colorado State does not sponsor a men's program.  Denver does and will host the Maverick men and women on Jan. 17.  Wyoming will also compete at that meet.
 
RMAC Awards Sweep
 
The Mavericks swept the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Swimmer and Diver of the Week honors back on Oct. 9 as Olivia Hansson claimed the Women's Swimmer of the Week honor while Kenya Meyer claimed the Women's Diver of the Week honor.
 
CMU's men also swept the awards with Guillaume Guth and Jax Juarros winning the swimming and diving accolades, respectively.
 
Double Leader
 
Olivia Hansson leads the early-season NCAA Division II Top Times List in both the 500 and the 1,000 free.  Her altitude-adjusted 500 time of 4:49.95, is atop the nation by more than five seconds.  Her 1,000 time of 9:57.07 is more than 12 seconds quicker then the No. 2 ranking time of 10:09.50, held by teammate Maya Clise.
 
Hansson also ranks second in the 200 free at 1:48.53 and sixth in the 400 IM at 4:26.94.
 
Record-Setting Fly
 
Maverick senior Kiara Borchardt set a school-record time of 25.18 seconds in the 50 Fly during the second Intermountain Shootout meet, bettering her own former Maverick standard of 25.39, set in the first lap of her RMAC Championship 100 Fly race last February.
 
Although the 50 Fly is a non-championship event, Borchardt has the quickest time in NCAA Division II this year by 0.43 seconds over teammate Ada Qunell.

Nice Debut

Maverick junior Maya Clise, who swam for Division I New Mexico for two years, had a nice first weekend as a Maverick, setting a pair of new times on the Mavs' all-time top 10 list.  She took second in the 200 breast at the Intermountain Shootout with an altitude-adjused time of 2:19.85, which ranks her tenth in program history.

She also finished fourth in the 1000 Free in 10:09.50 (altitude-adjusted) and now ranks sixth in program history.  That time also ranks second in Division II behhind only Olivia Hansson.

Clise also had a NCAA Championship "B" cut time of 5:03.01 (altitude-adjusted) in the 500 Free.

Half-Way to Indiana
 
Maverick senior diver Kenya Meyer is half way to booking her ticket to the NCAA Division II Pre-Championship Diving Qualification Meet after scoring 440.25 points on 11 dives in the 3-meter competition during the second Intermountain Shootout meet.  The reigning RMAC Women's Diver of the Year out of Bozeman, Montana is a returning all-American and will now need to just set a 6-dive qualifying score on either the 1 or 3-meter springboard at one more meet in order to book her trip to Evansville, Indiana in March.
 
Meyer has made the trip to the pre-championship qualification meet in each of her first three years as a Maverick, breaking through to the official championship meet for the first time last year.
 
A New Associate (Head Coach)
 
Wender & Parro would be a great name of a law firm and certainly makes a great coaching combination at the helm of the Maverick program.
 
Mickey Wender, who was the 2024 NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year, announced the promotion of Andy Parro to the role of Associate Head Coach earlier this week.  Parro has been Wender's top assistant coach for the previous four seasons, helping the Mavs sweep the RMAC men's and women's team titles in each year while racking up eight combined top-10 finishes in the NCAA Championships, including a second and third place finish in each of the last two years on the women's side.
 
A former head coach at NCAA Division III Illinois Tech in his native city of Chicago, Parro will also continue his role as the team's recruiting coordinator, after repetitively proving the ability to attract great ability to attract and develop talent to the Maverick program.

In the polls
 
The Mavericks were picked second in the initial monthly edition of the CSCAA NCAA Division II Top 25 Dual Meet poll, which was announced by the coaching organization last Friday. 
 
The Maverick women, who took third at last year's NCAA Division II National Championships, received 243 points in the polling of a committee of CSCAA member coaches from Division II institutions, trailing only Tampa's total of 247.

Indianapolis (218), Grand Valley State (217) and Nova Southeastern (213) round out the top five.  Nova Southeastern won the national title last year.

The Mavs are one of three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams in the poll, sitting ahead of No. 18 Colorado School of Mines and No. 25 Simon Fraser.
 
Double No. 2
 
The Mavericks also sit second in both the championship and dual meet rankings, produced by Swimcloud.
 
The Mavericks have 679.95 points in the dual meet rankings, trailing only Tampa's total of 695.70 and have 600.86 points in the championship rankings, trailing only Tampa's total of 653.98.

About the Opponents

Both Colorado State and Denver opened their seasons at the Front Range Invitational on Oct. 3-4 at Denver.  

The Colorado State Rams took second in the 2-day meet with 673 1/2 points while Denver was fourth with 611 1/2.

The Rams won eight of the 20 total events and had four second and four third place finishes as well.  Erin Dawson was the meet's high point winner, scoring 68 points while claiming four wins and two second place finishes.  She has won three Mountain West titles in her career.

Denver had three wins as well as four second place and four third place finishes.

They then competed against Air Force, Wyoming and No. 21 LSU in a 2-day quad meet at Air Force last Friday and Saturday.  They wnt 0-3 but were just four points shy of Wyoming, 188-184.  Samantha Synsvoll won the 200 IM in 2:07.51.

The Rams went 6-3 in dual meets last year and took seventh at the Mountain West Championships.

The Pioneers won their 12th straight Summit League Championship in 2024-25 and went 3-5 in dual meets a year ago.

Now senior Kaitlin Calvery was named as the Summit League's Diver of the Year last season.

A look back to 2024-25
 
The Mavericks swept the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles for the seventh straight year before going on to post more strong finishes at the NCAA Division II Championships.  The CMU women finished third as a team at the national meet and combined to win three national titles, including defense of their title in the 400 medley relay.
 
CMU's men took ninth place to lead all RMAC teams.
 
The Mavericks competed mainly against NCAA Division I opposition throughout the season seeing only the CSU Pueblo women and the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers in meets during the first half of the season prior to the conference and national meets.
 
At the RMAC Championships, the Mavericks combined to win 27 gold and 62 total medals in the 42 events.
 
The Mavs then claimed 82 total all-America honors at the NCAA meet.
 
Award-Winners
 
Fittingly, the Mavericks brough in quite a haul of post-season awards at both the national and conference level last year.
 
Five Maverick athletes received the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's major awards at the end of the 2024-25 season.
 
On the men's side, team captain Andrew Scoggin, who has since graduated, was named as the RMAC Simmer of the Year while Ryan Campbell was named as the Men's Diver of the Year.  Kenya Meyer was named as the RMAC Women's Diver of the Year.
 
The Mavs also swept the RMAC Freshman of the Year awards with Richard Schmiedefeld and Kendyll Wilkinson receiving the men's & women's awards.
 
The Mavs also brought in a boatload of academic awards as Meyer and Dejan Urbanek swept the RMAC Academic Athlete of the Year honors while leading a group of 19 Maverick First Team Academic All-RMAC selections.
 
The Mavericks also led the country with the maximum eight possible (four men, four women) College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® selections.  Meyer, Kiara Borchardt and Ada Qunell
Return in 2025-26 from that list.
 
The Mavs also led the country with 39 CSCAA Scholar All-Americans while the Maverick men won the RMAC's Brechler Award for having the highest team GPA in the conference.
 
Returning National Champs
 
Antonia Leese, Kiara Borchardt and Ada Qunell all return as members of the Mavs' women's 400-yard medley relay team that won the NCAA title for the second straight time in 2025.  Borchardt and Qunell were also members of the 2024 winning team
 
Qunell, a 4-time national champion, also helped the Mavs win the 200 and 400 Freestyle relay teams in 2024.  Elli Williams also returns for her senior season after teaming with Qunell and others on those winning teams.
 
National Championship Run
 
Excluding, 2020 when the national championship meet was canceled 1 ½ days in due to the initial stages of the COVID pandemic, the Mavericks have won at least one national championship event every year since 2018, a streak they will hope to continue into 2026.
 
All-American List
 
The Mavericks roster or returning all-Americans is quite lengthy and impressive.
 
The Mavericks had a program-record 30 different individuals combine for 82 CSCAA All-America honors at last year's championships.  The Mavericks return 20 of those people to this year's roster and have 21 total returning all-Americans on this year's roster, including one who earned honors in 2023.
 
The returning group from 2025 earned a combined total of 44 all-America honors last year, which go to the top 16 finishers in each event at the national championships, last season.  The top eight finishers earn first team honors while the ninth through 16^th place finishers are Second Team/Honorable Mention selections.
 
Here's a list of CMU's returning all-Americans along with the number of honors each received in 2025 and the total number in their career.
 
Women
Kiara Borchardt (3/9)
Talia Datilio (1/1)
Olivia Hansson (5/10)
Taylar Hooton (1/1)
Reagan Horn (1/1)
Antonia Leese (3/3)
Mimi Licht (1/1)
Kenya Meyer (1/1)
Sydnee O'Neil (2/2)
Ada Qunell (4/13)
Hanna Sasivarevic (1/1)
Kendyll Wilkinson (3/3)
Elli Williams (3/7)
 
Men
Ryan Campbell (2/2)
Wyatt Hermanson (0/2)
Marcos Otero (1/2)
David Roethlisberger (2/2)
Luka Samsonov (3/3)
Richard Schmiedefeld (5/5)
Gavyn Tatge (1/1)
Ben Vester (1/1)
 
Preseason Polls
 
Both Maverick teams were unanimous selections to win their eighth straight RMAC crowns according to last month's Preseason Coaches' Polls.  The Maverick women received all eight of the possible first place votes they could receive to top the poll with 64 points ahead of Simon Fraser, which had 56 points and the first place vote from CMU Coach Mickey Wender.
 
Eight points were awarded for first place votes as each of the conference's nine coaches were asked to rank their opposition 1-8 without voting for their own squad.
 
The Maverick men picked up all five of their possible first place votes to top the poll with 25 points ahead of Mines, which took second in the poll with 20 points while receiving Wender's first place vote.  There are six men's teams in the conference and coaches were asked to rank their opposition 1-5.
 
Preseason All-RMAC
 
The RMAC also announced a Preseason All-RMAC team, made up of the top returning finisher in each individual event from last year's RMAC Championships.
 
Nine Maverick women combined for 14 of the 16 possible spots on the team while the Maverick men had four selections.
 
RMAC Domination
 
Although the Mavericks have focused their efforts against NCAA Division I opponents in recent years, something they will do again this year, they have gradually extended winning streaks when meeting up with their fellow RMAC foes.
 
In addition to sweeping the last seven conference championship titles, both Maverick will carry lengthy RMAC dual meet winning streaks in to the 2025-26 season.
 
The Maverick women have won 36 consecutive duals against RMAC foes, a streak that dates back to Jan. 22, 2016.  They are not slated to contest any official duals this year.
 
However, the Mav women already handedly defeated Adams State in both Intermountain Shootout meets earlier this month and will get to swim against the Colorado School of Mines during next month's TYR Invitational (Nov. 19-22).  The Maverick divers are also slated to compete against Mines in a Nov. 22 dual at the end of the invitational.
 
Division I Schedule
 
As in recent years, Maverick Head Coach Mickey Wender has built a schedule that will pit the Mavericks against many of the top programs in the Mountain Time Zone and the Western United States as a whole.  The Maverick women are slated to compete against NCAA Division I foes in each of their first eight regular season meets leading into the RMAC and NCAA Division II Championships.
 
After already taking on BYU twice, the Mavs will face Colorado State and Denver next week before heading to Salt Lake City to take on a second Big 12 foe in Utah on Halloween (Oct. 31).
 
CMU's women will race against Northern Arizona during the CMU Invitational, which will also include Mines.
 
The Mavs will then wrap up the first semester at the Dec. 15-17 UNLV Invitational.
 
In January, the Mavs will take on Denver and Wyoming on Jan. 17 in Denver and will meet up with BYU and Air Force on Jan. 23 and 24.
 
CMU's divers are also slated to go to Flagstaff, Arizona for Northern Arizona's Lumberjack Diving Invitational (Jan. 29-31).
 
The Friendly Confines
 
The Mavericks will once again host the RMAC Championships, doing so for the seventh straight year in February (Feb. 10-14).
 
The Mavs also hosted the championship meet for five straight years from 2013-17 after first hosting in 2011.
 
Including the RMAC Championships and this week's two meets, the Mavericks are slated to take full advantage of the top-level El Pomar Natatorium, as they will home for six different meets this year.
 
RMAC Network News
 
The RMAC Network has moved to a pay-pre-view model for the 2025-26 season.  This season, all RMAC athletic events broadcast by its 15 full-member institutions and associate members will only be available for purchase via a single-game pass or a monthly or annual subscription. Revenue generated by the network will be redistributed to the league's membership to enhance their programs.
 
RMAC fans can purchase monthly and annual subscriptions that will provide them with access to all regular-season, championship, and archived broadcasts on the RMAC Network. A monthly subscription costs $25, and an annual subscription costs $130. Single-day passes are available for $10, which grants access to a particular day of coverage and are valid for 24 hours from the time of purchase.
 
In conjunction with the launch of the new pay-per-view plans, a RMAC Network "Peak Pricing" sale is now currently available until October 26. During the sale, fans can purchase an annual subscription for $120 by using the code RMACELEVATE25 during the purchasing process.
 
Additionally, throughout the 2025-26 season, any annual subscription purchased with an .EDU email address and using the code Y26-RMACEDU will receive the Peak Pricing Promotion. With the discount, an RMAC institutional community member can purchase a yearly subscription for $120, which is more than half off a monthly subscription of the same length.
 
Additionally, a discounted annual subscription price will be available to students, faculty, and staff of each member institution throughout the year. Purchasing options and pricing for individual RMAC Championships will be announced closer to each event.
 
Colorado Mesa turns 100
 
The CMU Century Celebration stands as the cornerstone of Colorado Mesa University's year-long centennial celebration. This ambitious initiative unites our community in honoring a rich heritage while boldly envisioning the next hundred years of academic excellence.

Led by the Steering Committee and six specialized sub-committees, we're orchestrating a transformative experience that will resonate through generations. Each committee brings unique expertise to create an unforgettable commemoration of our past, present and future.
 
To learn more about Colorado Mesa's 100-year celebration, visit cmucentury.com.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will take on another NCAA Division I foe next Friday, competing in a Halloween afternoon dual in Salt Lake City against the University of Utah Utes.