GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's & women's swimming & diving teams will continue a run of taking on NCAA Division I foes on Friday when the Mavs travel to Salt Lake City, Utah and the Ute Natatorium to take on host Utah and UNLV in an evening double-dual.
The 16-event slate will begin with women's 3-meter and men's 1-meter diving events at 4 p.m. The swimming action will commence at 5 p.m. The other two diving events (men's 1-meter & women's 3-meter) will be held during the swimming breaks. The full schedule of events can be seen below.
Live results can be accessed with as subscription to Meet Mobile.
The meet will not be streamed.
A full meet recap will be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com on Friday night.
The Maverick women are treating the double dual as an exhibition that will not count on their season ledger.
It will be a countable meet for the Maverick men.
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.
Dual meet scoring will be used and the Mavs will have results against both opponents.
The complete swimming event slate is listed below.
4 p.m.
Women's 3m Diving
Men's 1m Diving
5 p.m.
200 Medley Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
Women's 1m Diving
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
100 Fly
Men's 3m Diving
200 IM
400 Free Relay
Last Time Out
The Mavericks spent their Halloween in Denver competing in an afternoon dual against the NCAA Division I Denver Pioneers.
The Maverick men won 11 events and shared the win in another en route to a dominant 83-point (183.5-105.5) victory in the 16-event dual. The CMU women won three events while falling 197-103 to the Pioneers, who have won the last 13 Summit League titles.
Jakob Werner set a school-record in the 500 free while he and
Titouan Bernot set national-leading times.
Giani Benoit also swept the diving events for the Mavs.
On the women's side,
Caden Kelly,
Emma Lence and
Melina Giraudeau all won events.
Record-Breaker
Jakob Werner posted an altitude-adjusted time of 4:21.43 to win the 500 free in last Saturday's dual. That time broke Sam Bryant's 9-year old school record of 4:23.13, set in 2017, by 1.7 seconds.
Werner's time also leads the NCAA Division II top times list by 2.54 seconds ahead of
Titouan Bernot, who had a mark of 4:23.97 at the Intermountain Shootout to open the season. Werner won Saturday's race by 9.9 seconds over teammate
Brody Blatt and also won the 1,000 free by more than ten seconds.
Extending the national lead
Titouan Bernot and
Richard Schmiedefeld also extend their national leads on Saturday. Bernot won the 200 free with an altitude-adjusted time of 1:35.12.
Richard Schmiedefeld also came into the day leading the country and set a season-best of 1:47.04 although two Drury swimmers posted slightly faster times on Saturday as well, dropping him to third.
Ben Vester also continues to lead the country in the 400 IM at 3:52.47.
On the women's side,
Melina Giraudeau continues to lead the NCAA Division II top times list in the 200 breast (2:12.77) but slipped back to second behind Drury's Gwen Bergum in the 400 IM.
Up to two
Both Maverick teams moved up to the No. 2 spots in the October edition of the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association's NCAA Division II Top 25 Rankings,
that were released on Friday.
The Maverick women had been ranked third in the preseason edition while the men had been ranked fourth.
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 614.83 points ahead of Tampa (603.08), Grand Valley State (583.49), Nova Southeastern (579.76) and Wingate (576.47). The Mavs are also third in the dual ranking with 687.50 points behind Nova Southeastern (692.40) and Tampa (688.65)
The Maverick men are also second in the dual rankings with 742.20 points trailing only Tampa (745.85).
The Mav men are also second in the championship rankings with 666.48 points, trailingly only Wingate (683.74).
Looking for a Utah Sweep
Friday's competition will mark the third time this season that the Mavs have faced Utah. Both the Maverick men and women finished higher than the Utes in both of the Intermountain Shootout meets to start the season.
CMU's men and women both won the first meet and took second behind BYU in the second of those opening-weekend meets that were scored separately. The Ute men and women both finished third in both.
Friday's meet will also mark the first of two times that the Mavs will swim and dive against UNLV. CMU will travel to Las Vegas for the UNLV's Invitational (Dec. 14-17).
About the Utes
The Utes were last in action on Friday, splitting duals against Wyoming, contested in Green River, Wyoming. The Ute men beat the Cowboys, 141-121 while the women fell to the Cowgirls, 179-83.
That competition was Utah's first since competing at the Mavs' Intermountain Shootout meets on Oct. 2-3.
Six Ute men won events while Ana Diedrichs was the lone woman to post a victory, taking the 100 back in 55.05 seconds.
The Ute women will also face Utah Tech on Thursday evening prior to Friday's triangular.
About the Rebels
The UNLV women have a 1-2 dual record so far while their men are 2-1. Both last competed last Thursday in separate locations.
The men blew past CSU Bakersfield, 226-74 at home while the women traveled to Reno and dropped a 127 ½-70 ½ to Nevada in a Silver State Series match-up.
Previously, the Rebels swept both wins over CMU's Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Simon Fraser in a 2-day dual on Oct. 24 after losing to Arizona State on Oct. 2 in Tempe.
Logan Calhoun (500 & 1000 Free) and Ambrus Barcsak (200 Free, 200 IM) both won multiple events in last week's win over Bakersfield that saw the Rebels win all 16 events. Alex Vazquez also swept the diving wins.
Ava Olson claimed a win in the 1000 free with a time of 10:11.99.
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 Maverick swimmers will have next weekend off in preparation for the TYR/CMU Invitational, which they will host from Nov. 18-21. That mid-season prelims/finals format meet has typically been a bonanza for fast and NCAA qualifying times. The Colorado School of Mines men and women and women's teams from Division I Northern Arizona, CSU Pueblo and Western Colorado are slated to compete against the Mavs.
Meanwhile, the CMU divers will be on the road competing at Northern Arizona's Lumberjack Diving Invitational in Flagstaff. That meet will be held over three days from Nov. 19-21.
