GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's and women's swimming and diving teams saved their best for last, winning ten of the final 11 events, while setting multiple championship, pool and school records as they completed a dominating Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship team title sweep on Saturday night here at the El Pomar Natatorium.
The Mavericks have now swept team titles in each of last eight years and did it in style, winning 32 different events over the last five days while claiming 71 of the meet's total medals.
The rest of the conference had 56 medals— combined.
CMU's men, won 17 events and 38 medals while tallying 1,234 team points, and have now won a conference-leading ten titles in program history. They finished 471 points ahead of the Colorado School of Mines (762 ½) while Oklahoma Christian edged Simon Fraser for third, 493-487. UT Permian Basin finished fifth with 373 points while Adams State rounded out the 6-team field with 194 ½.
The Maverick women claimed 15 events and 33 medals throughout the week and took the title with 1,870 ½ in a different scoring structure than the men. They were 566 ahead of Mines (1,304 ½) while Simon Fraser finished third with 1,240.
Western Colorado (905) led the rest of the nine teams in the field with 905 and was followed by Oklahoma Christian (684), CSU Pueblo (538), Nebraska-Kearney (326), UTPB (236) and Adams State (111).
The Mavericks also swept the Swimmer and Diver of the Meet awards, determined by the high point awards.
Olivia Hansson claimed the Women's Swimmer of the Meet award after claiming three individual and four overall titles, including Saturday's 1650-yard freestyle.
Kenya Meyer was named as the Diver of the Meet for the second straight year after sweeping both diving events, also for the second time. She broke the RMAC Championship, pool and school records in Saturday's 1-meter event.
Aron Jonsson, who claimed a thrilling 200 breaststroke win on Saturday was tabbed as the Men's Swimmer of the Meet after scoring 72 points and claiming three gold and five medals throughout the week.
Ryan Campbell and
David Roethlisberger shared the Men's Diver of the Meet award after splitting the diving titles while taking second in the other.
Hansson picked up the first of CMU's ten final day wins, taking the longest event of the meet (1650 free) in 16:56.37 to win by more than seven seconds.
Hanna Sasivarevic also set an improved season-best and NCAA Division II Championship "B" cut time of 17:16.04 (16:56.04-altitude adjusted) to take fifth while
Sydnee O'Neil finished seventh in 17:32.87 (17:12.87-converted), which is also a season-best and improved NCAA provisional time.
Gavyn Tatge then claimed the silver in the men's 1,650 free with a time of 15:58.27.
From that point forward, the Mavs won every event.
Ada Qunell, who claimed six gold medals and a silver throughout the week, started the run, breaking her own pool record with a time of 49.50 seconds (49.40-converted), which eclipsed the NCAA Division II Championship Automatic Qualifying standard.
Kendyll Wilkinson (51.19),
Reagan Horn (51.50) and
Kiara Borchardt (52.42) were also in the championship final taking fourth, fifth and eighth. Wilkinson and Horn's efforts were season-bests and improved NCAA "B" cut efforts.
The Maverick men the dominated the men's 100 free as
Guillaume Guth, who won gold in all seven of his events during the meet, including three individual and four relay events, set a RMAC Championship record for the second time of the of the day, touching the wall in 42.97 seconds to win by 1.31 over his closest teammate—
Braden Felio. Guth, who leads the NCAA Division II list this season at 42.66, had also set a then RMAC record of 43.45 in the morning preliminaries.
Meanwhile, Felio (44.28/44.18 converted) moved in to the No. 7 spot of CMU history while
Jonas Friess claimed the bronze in 44.64 seconds.
Holden Convertino completed the 1-2-3-4 sweep in 44.91 seconds while
Ben Vester was sixth at 45.17 seconds.
The Maverick women then took the top two spots in the 200 backstroke as freshman
Abby Uhl won the title in 2:00.61 after setting a season-best and improved NCAA "B" cut time of 1:59.63 (1:58.43-converted) in the morning preliminaries.
Taylar Hooton took second in 2:03.57 while
Anna Beck finished seventh in 2:08.67, after recording a time of 2:05.04 in the morning.
Team captain
Luka Samsonov then led a 1-3-5 Maverick finish in the men's half of the event. In he process, he claimed his first individual title of his career. He finished in 1:46.61 to out-touch Simon Fraser's Luks Buck (1:46.79).
CMU's
Richard Schmiedefeld also claimed the bronze medal in 1:47.57 while
Jackson Moe finished fifth in 1:52.73.
The Mavs also swept the 200 breaststroke titles as
Melina Giraudeau set a NCAA "A" time of 2:13.09 (2:11.89-converted), pulling away from Mines' standout Anna Bream for a 2.26-second win. More than half of that gap came in the final 50 yards.
Giraudeau also lowered her season-best by two full seconds and still ranks second in CMU history behind only former national champion Lily Borgenheimer. Giraudeau will also enter the national meet ranked as high as second.
Maya Clise (2:19.90) and
Antonia Leese (2:20.35) were also in the final, placing fourth and sixth, respectively. Clise now ranks ninth in program history with her converted mark of 2:18.70, one spot behind Leese, who has a career-best of 2:17.75.
Jonsson, the Mavs' school record holder and
Miles Moran, who had a career-best time of 1:59.13 (1:57.93-converted) then went 1-2 in the men's 200 breast with the Icelandic senior winning his third title of the week in 1:58.90.
Meanwhile, Moran moved up a spot to sixth in CMU history with his time, which will also put him as high as sixth nationally after the conversion that will lower the mark to 1:57.93.
Marcos Otero, who had ranked sixth nationally, also made the final, placing fifth in 2:02.33 after qualifying in 2:01.84.
In diving, Meyer, who will finish her career with six RMAC titles, broke her own RMAC Championship record in both the preliminaries and finals, scoring 520.95 points in the final to lead a 1-2-3 sweep. She also bested her own pool and school record of 510.15 points, which had stood for nearly 15 months, in the final.
Talia Datilio (486.95) and
Jenna Hurley (468.10) also medaled while
Mimi Licht (470.65),
Emma Lence (465.95) and
Juli Holt (455.20) also turned in impressive exhibition efforts in the afternoon preliminary session.
The Maverick women's quartet of Hooton, Wilkinson, Qunell and Horn then won the 400 free relay in 3:22.01 while Uhl, Sasivarevic,
Tori Bartusiak and Hansson won the "B" heat in 3:26.70.
The Mav men then fittingly dominated the relay as Guth, Otero, Felio and Friess finished in 2:54.31 to smash the 2-year old championship and pool record time of 2:55.30 by nearly a second while moving up to fourth on the national list.
