GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's & women's swimming & diving teams will close out a busy first month of the season and look to give the University of Denver a fright when the Mavericks head to Denver for a Halloween dual against the Pioneers.
 
A 16-event slate will begin with diving competition at 10 a.m. before swimming action will commence at noon.
 
The meet will be streamed on the Pioneers' YouTube Channel at the link above.
 
Live results can be accessed with as subscription to Meet Mobile.
 
A full meet recap will be posted on Saturday evening.
 
Meet Format
 
The meet will be contested over 16 events, including both the 1 and 3-meter diving disciplines.  The swimming action will begin with the 200-yard medley relay and close with the 400 free relay.
 
The complete swimming event slate is listed below.
 
200 Medley Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
Break
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
100 Fly
Break
200 IM
400 free relay
 
Last Time Out (Men)
 
The Maverick men, ranked fourth nationally, dominated No. 18 Colorado School of Mines in a RMAC dual in Golden on Friday, Oct. 16.
 
The Mavs set six pool records and claimed official wins in 12 of the 13 events.  They also had five second place finishes and a pair of 1-2-3 sweeps in the 163-78 win over the Orediggers.
 
Full Recap
 
Last Time Out (Women)
 
The Maverick women were in action a day later (Saturday, Oct. 17) against NCAA Division I and Pac-12 conference foes Colorado State and Washington State in Fort Collins.
 
Melina Giraudeau and Hanna Sasivarevic both posted a pair of second place finishes to lead the Mavs, who fell to CSU, 204-96 and Washington State, 173-121.
 
Full Recap
 
Diving Sweep
 
The Mavericks swept the most recent Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Diver of the Week awards, handed out on Oct. 22.
 
Wyatt Hermanson received the men's award for the second straight time this season and the fourth of his career after winning both the 1 and 3-meter events in the dual against Mines.  Meanwhile, Emma Lence claimed the women's award for the first time in her career after leading the Mavs in both events in the triangular with Colorado State and Washington State. 
 
CMU had also swept the initial RMAC Diver of the Week awards on Oct. 8 with Hermanson and Jenna Hurley winning those honors.
 
Half-Way to Indianapolis
 
Three Maverick divers in Wyatt Hermanson, Giani Benoit and Troy Richard surpassed the NCAA Division II Qualification standard during the Oct. 16 dual with the Colorado School of Mines.  As such, they are half-way to booking a trip to the national pre-championship qualification meet in Indianapolis on Mar. 9.
 
To be able to make that trip, divers must achieve both a 6-dive and 11-dive qualification score from either the 1 or 3-meter springboard, but at two different meets throughout the season.
 
Hermanson recorded qualifying scores of 320.33 (1m) and 351.38 (3m) points to win both events in the dual against Mines and will simply need an 11-dive qualifying score on either board to secure a trip.
 
Similarly, Benoit surpassed the 6-dive qualifying standards of 285 and 295 points on both boards with third place scores of 299.25 and 321.30 points and is in the same situation.
 
Richard also tallied 294.90 points on the 1-meter and will also need an 11-dive qualification standard.
 
The qualification tracking webpage can be seen here.

National Leaders
 
Three different Maverick men individuals lead the current NCAA Division II Performance lists in a combined four events as of Thursday morning.
 
Here's a look at all of the national leaders with their altitude-adjusted times, which were all set during the Intermountain Shootout meets at the start of the season.
 
200 Free- Titouan Bernot – 1:35.69
500 Free- Bernot- 4:23.97
200 Back- Richard Schmiedefeld – 1:46.10
400 IM- Ben Vester- 3:52.47
 
Double National Leader
 
Maverick women's standout Melina Giraudeau continues to lead the NCAA Division II top times list in a pair of events.  She extended her national lead and paces the national list in the 200 breast with her time of 2:12.77 (altitude-adjusted) in the match-up with Colorado State and Washington State and also posted a season-best of 1:02.16 in the 100 breast, which at the time was the best in the nation.  She now ranks third in that event after two Nova Southeastern swimmers went quicker last Saturday in a dual against Rollins.
 
However, Giraudeau continues to lead the country in the 400 IM with her converted time of 4:23.09 from the Intermountain Shootout.
 
In the polls
 
The Maverick women sit third in the CSCAA's NCAA Division II Preseason Top 25 National Rankings while the Maverick men are ranked fourth.
 
The monthly rankings are voted on by committees of Division II coaches representing a cross-section of programs and conferences throughout the country. Poll committee members evaluate teams based on head-to-head performances, nationally ranked performances, significant performances achieved since the previous poll, results from invitational and championship-style competition, and the quality and depth of performances across events.
 
Together, these criteria are intended to provide a comprehensive assessment of each program's performance at the time of the poll, while recognizing the different competitive opportunities and formats that occur throughout the collegiate season.
 
In the Computers

Meanwhile, the Mavericks are also highly ranked in Swimcloud's national computer rankings, based on times submitted to the website.
 
CMU's women are ranked first in the championship rankings with 610.51 points ahead of Tampa (603.08), Grand Valley State (583.49), Nova Southeastern (579.76) and West Chester.  The Mavs are also third in the dual ranking with 681.55 points behind Nova Southeastern (692.40) and Tampa (688.65)
 
The Maverick men are also second in the dual rankings with 735.70 points trailing only Tampa (745.85).

The Mav men are also second in the championship rankings with 659.34 points, trailing only Wingate (679.09).
 
Preseason Polls
 
Both Maverick teams were unanimous selections to win their ninth straight RMAC crowns according to this year'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 the Colorado School of Mines, which had 57 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 women were also picked fourth in the CSCAA's Preseason Rankings.
 
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.
 
Eleven different Maverick athletes received a combined 16 Preseason All-RMAC nods.
 
Swimmers Melina Giraudeau, Richard Schmiedefeld, Aron Jonsson and Ben Vester and diver Talia Datilio were all named in two events.
 
About the Pioneer Men
 
The Pioneer men, who will compete at home for the first time this season, are currently 1-1 in duals after getting past Seattle, 137-106 in a 2-day meet at Pepperdine last Friday and Saturday.  They had dropped a 163-131 decision at Air Force on Oct. 16.  They opened their season with a third place finish out of three teams at the Front Range Invite in Fort Collins on Oct. 2-3.
 
The Pios won last year's Summit League title, their fifth straight, and have won that in 12 of the last 13 seasons.  They have 499 dual meet wins in program history and will look for their 500^th against the Mavs.
 
Pierce Bickerton set a 200 free time of 1:36.86, the eighth fastest in program history in the last dual in Malibu, California and was one of six individual winners against Seattle.  Kita Campbell won both breaststroke events
 
About the Pioneer Women
 
DU's women will carry a 2-2 dual meet record into a Friday afternoon match-up against Colorado State.
 
They dominated both Pepperdine (204-58) and Seattle (216-45) last weekend after dropping decisions to Air Force and Washington State in a Oct. 16 triangular.  They finished fifth out of five women's teams at the Front Range Invite.
 
They have won 13 straight Summit League titles since 2014.
 
The Pioneers won 14 events last weekend in California.  Isa Cardenas swept the 50 and 100 free and was on two winning relay teams while Samantha Synsvoll proved versatile, winning the 200 free, 200 back and 200 IM.
 
A look back to 2025-26
 
The Mavericks swept the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles for the eighth straight year before going on to record third place finishes in both the men's and women's team standings at the NCAA Division II Championships.
 
The men's third place finish was the best in program history. 
 
The Maverick women have now finished amongst the nation's top four in four straight years.
 
The Mavericks combined for 35 podium finishes at the NCAA Championships, including seven national runner-up efforts.
 
At the conference level, the Mavericks dominated the rest of the field winning 32 of the meet's 42 events.
 
The Maverick men won 17 of 21 events at the RMAC Championships, including all five relays, and both diving events as 18 different athletes combined to win 53 of the All-RMAC honors, given to the top four finishers in each event.
 
Sixteen different Maverick women combined for 48 All-RMAC honors as the Maverick women won 15 of the 21 events while taking 33 of the 63 total RMAC Championship medals, three more than the rest of the 9-team field combined.
 
Award-Winners
 
Fittingly, the Mavericks brough in quite a haul of post-season awards at both the national and conference level last year.
 
The Maverick men swept the RMAC major awards.  Guillaume Guth was named as the RMAC Swimmer of the Year while Ryan Campbell won the RMAC Diver of the Year award for the second straight year.  Micah Moore, who returns to the Maverick roster in 2026-27, was selected as the RMAC Freshman of the Year while Mickey Wender claimed RMAC Coach of the Year honors.
 
Wender was also named as the RMAC Women's Coach of the Year while 2026 graduates Olivia Hansson and Kenya Meyer earned RMAC Swimmer and Diver of the Year honors, respectively.
 
Nationally, CMU's Julie Weddle was named as the CSCAA's Men's Diving Coach of the Year after four Maverick divers combined to score 92 team points at the NCAA Championships, helping the Mavs to their best ever overall team finish.  Two of those four men in Jax Juarros and Giani Benoit, return to the CMU's roster this year.
 
Academic Domination
 
The Mavericks also dominated in the classroom and earned a variety of academic awards following the 2025-26 season.
 
The Mavs led all of Division II with 39 CSCAA Scholar All-Americans, a number that matched the Mavs' record. 
 
Four Mavericks were also named as College Sports Communicators Academic All-Americans while CMU also had the maximum allowable eight Academic All-District honorees
 
The Mavericks also dominated the RMAC Academic Awards with Ada Qunell and Ben Vester sweeping the RMAC Academic Athlete of the Year honors before going on to join Kenya Meyer and Richard Schmiedefeld as the Academic All-Americans.
 
The Maverick women led all RMAC teams with their nine First Team Academic All-RMAC picks and 20 selections to the RMAC Academic Honor Roll.  The men had eight First Team Academic All-RMAC picks to match the rest of the conference combined and had a conference-high 15 athletes named to the honor roll.
 
All-American List
 
The Mavericks roster or returning all-Americans is quite lengthy and impressive.
 
The Mavericks had a program-record 31 different individuals combine for 90 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 2026 earned a combined total of 53 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 2026 and the total number in their career.
 
Women
Talia Datilio(2/3)
Melina Giraudeau (5/5)
Taylar Hooton (3/4)
Reagan Horn (2/3)
Jenna Hurley (2/2)
Eva Lehmkuhler (1/1)
Emma Lence (2/2)
Sydnee O'Neil (1/3)
Hanna Sasivarevic (6/7)
Abby Uhl (1/1)
Kendyll Wilkinson (2/5)
 
Men
Giani Benoit (1/1)
Holden Convertino (1/1)
Jonas Friess (3/3)
Wyatt Hermanson (0/2)
Aron Jonsson (3/3)
Jax Juarros (2/2)
Micah Moore (2/2)
Marcos Otero (5/7)
Richard Schmiedefeld (6/11)
Ben Vester (3/4)
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will continue their run of duals against Division I foes next Friday (Nov. 6) in Salt Lake City.  The Mavs will take on host Utah and UNLV in the 3-team meet in the Ute Natatorium.
 
The women's meet will be an exhibition meet for CMU.