FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.— Giani Benoit and
Kenya Meyer led the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks on Thursday, the first day of action at the Lumberjack Diving Invitational here in Northern Arizona University's Wall Aquatic Center.
Benoit, a CMU freshman out of Wichita, Kansas, led a contingent of four Maverick men with a seventh place finish in the 3-meter event while Meyer, a senior and all-American, finished 13
th out of a mostly NCAA Division I field on the women's 1-meter.
Benoit scored a combined total of 563.55 points in the 6-dive preliminary and final rounds, which were added together to determine the overall standings. He was in sixth place after the preliminary round with 278.35 points and then tallied a season-high 285.20 in the finals.
Maverick junior
Ty Mitton finished eight with 543.55 points and tallied 280.05 in the final.
Aiden Coon finished ninth with 492.20 points while
Ryan Campbell took tenth with 471.95 points.
Meyer emerged 12
th out of 35 divers in the preliminary round and was the lone Maverick to reach the 18-woman final, before finishing 13
th overall. She scored 488.55 points over her 12 total dives on the 1-meter, tallying 244.95 in the preliminary round before adding 243.60 more in the finals.
Emma Lence took 20
th in the preliminaries with 228.00 points points, just missing out of a spot in the finals by less than a half-point.
Talia Datilio finished 22
nd with 223.50 points while
Jenna Hurley was 23
rd with 221.30.
Mimi Licht (28
th, 214.75) and
Juli Holt (31
st, 202.55) also represented the Mavs.
CMU also had a pair of the 3-women units in the team event, which saw each member of the team compete two dives. The six total dives, including two each on the 1 and 3-meter springboard as well as the platform, which is an NCAA Division I discipline that the Mavs do not practice.
Meyer, Hurley and Licht combined for a sixth place score of 223.00 points while Lence, Holt and Datilio finished eighth with 195.60 points.
There was not a men's team event.
On Friday, the men will move to the 1-meter while the women will contest the 3-meter springboard event.
Those events are slated to begin at 10:30 a.m.
