GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick swimming and diving teams won six Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship events to double up the rest of the conference combined on a strong Wednesday here at the Mavs' El Pomar Natatorium.
After sweeping the 800-yard freestyle relays in championship record times on Tuesday, the Mavericks received wins from
Olivia Hansson,
Ben Vester,
Guillaume Guth and diver
Ryan Campbell in individual events before again sweeping the 200 medley relays at the end of the night.
In the process, the Maverick women opened up a 106 ½-point cushion over the Colorado School of Mines and the rest of the 9-team field. The men, who swept the top five places in the 50 free and all three spots in the 1-meter diving final, lead Mines, which is in second out of six teams, by 135 points, 369-264.
The Mavs are gunning for their eighth straight conference team title sweep.
Hansson, who anchored the Mavs' 800 free relay team on Tuesday, regained the top spot on the women's 1,000-yard freestyle podium as she won Wednesday's first final in ten minutes, 9.01 seconds. She now has eight career RMAC titles and won the 1,000 as a freshman in 2023 before taking second in the past two years.
Teammate
Hanna Sasivarevic also claimed the bronze medal with a third place and season-best time of 10:15.86 (10:04.46-altitude adjusted) to move to as high as sixth on the NCAA Division II season-long top times list, which Hansson leads.
Sydnee O'Neil also set a season-best and NCAA "B" cut time of 10:26.38 (10:14.98-converted) to take sixth.
Conrad Fawcett then led the Maverick men with a third place and season-best time of 9:24.62 (9:13.22-converted) to claim the bronze in a thrilling men's 1000 free, that saw ten men set NCAA "B" cut times between the morning and evening sessions. Fawcett also moved up a spot to sixth in CMU history.
The Maverick women then loaded up the points in the women's 200 individual medley , qualifying five swimmers for the final. Sophomore
Taylar Hooton led the way, taking second in a career-best of 2:03.69 (2:02.49-converted) while
Melina Giraudeau finished third in 2:04.55 (2:03.35-converted) to take over the No. 6 spot in CMU history, one place behind Hooton.
Tori Bartusiak (2:07.36),
Abby Uhl (2:08.17) and
Haven Hinkle (2:09.32), who had swum the 1000 free earlier, took sixth through eighth, respectively.
The Mavs then took three of the top four and four of the top six spots in the men's 200 IM as sophomore
Ben Vester took the gold in 1:48.44 (1:47.24-converted) jump six spots to fourth in CMU history. The German sophomore now has two RMAC titles to his credit this week after helping CMU take the 800 free relay win on Tuesday.
Aron Jonsson also added a NCAA "B" cut time of 1:50.15 (1:48.95-converted) to take third while
Micah Moore finished fourth in 1:50.96 while
Luka Samsonov touched sixth in 1:51.57.
Sophomore
Reagan Horn then went on to claim the bronze medal in the women's 50 free with a time of 23.38.
Meanwhile, Guth then led the Maverick domination in the men's half of the splash and dash. He won in 19.84 seconds after leading the Mavs to a RMAC Championship, pool and school-record time in Tuesday's relay.
Oskar Sawicki was second in 20.09 while
Richard Schmiedefeld claimed the bronze in 20.19 seconds.
Holden Convertino (20.24) and
Marcos Otero (20.28) also contributed big points while Marcus Pineiro won the consolation final in 20.40.
Action then moved to the diving well as Campbell claimed his second RMAC diving title, taking the 1-meter event with 561.80 points.
David Roethlisberger was second (525.70) while
Ty Mitton was third (460.40) after scoring 496.40 points in the preliminaries.
Giani Benoit (537.40) and
Aiden Coon (463.15) also surpassed the NCAA qualification standard of 440 points as exhibition divers during the afternoon preliminaries.
In the relays, Hooton,
Antonia Leese,
Kiara Borchardt and Horn claimed the 200 medley title with a time of 1:41.21, a full 1.3 seconds quicker than Simon Fraser's top unit.
Anna Beck, Giraudeau,
Amber Siverts and Bartusiak also won the "B" heat in 1:42.67, good for tenth place points with a time that would have put them third in the championship heat.
The men's quartet of Schmiedefeld,
Marcos Otero, Sawicki and
Holden Convertino were just as dominant, winning in 1:26.89, 1.67 seconds ahead of Mines. Samsonov, Jonsson, Moore and Pineiro won the secondary race in 1:28.63.
The 5-day meet continues on Thursday with preliminary swimming heats at 10 a.m., women's 3-meter diving preliminaries at 2 p.m. and an all-finals session at 5:30 p.m.