GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Coming off dominating Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship efforts last month, the Colorado Mesa University swimming & diving teams will look to once again contend for national titles, both as a team and as individuals this week at the NCAA Division II Championships, which begin Tuesday night at the Deaconess Aquatics Center in Evansville, Indiana.
 
The 4 ½-day meet will run through Saturday evening.
 
The Mavericks have qualified 28 individual swimmers (14 men, 14 women) and have brought two additional relay only swimmers, who could be selected for duty.
 
The Mavericks will be represented in all ten relay events and all 38 swimming events overall.
 
They also have 13 divers competing in Tuesday morning's pre-championship diving qualification meet in hopes of joining their swimming counterparts in the official championships.
 
Meet Format/Schedule
 
The championship meet will officially get underway on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. CDT (5 p.m. Mountain) with a brief swimming session with action in the 800-yard freestyle relays.
 
On Wednesday through Saturday, preliminary heats of swimming events will get underway at 10 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. Mountain) each morning.  The 11-dive preliminary round of the daily diving event will then commence at 1 p.m. EDT (Noon. Mountain) and will be followed 30 minutes later by the consolation final to determine the ninth through 16^th place finishers.
 
The diving championship final will be held during the daily evening finals sessions, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. EDT (3:30 p.m. Mountain) each evening, starting on Wednesday.  Each of those evening sessions will include the final heats in the various individual events before the diving final.  Relay action will cap each evening.
 
It is worth nothing that only the top eight seeded swimmers will swim in the evening session in the 1,000 and 1,650-yard freestyle events on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively.  The other sections of those timed-final events will be held at the end of the morning preliminary sessions and the times from all of the heats will be merged together to determine the final placements.
 
To see the full meet schedule, please see the participant manual.
 
The Mavs are slated to be represented in all 38 swimming events and assuming they get divers through Tuesday's pre-championship qualification meet, would have representation in the diving events as well.
 
Scoring
 
The top 16 finishers in each individual event will score team points with 20 going to the winner.  Second place is worth 17 and the points descend down to 11 for eighth place on a 20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11 basis.  Ninth place, which will go to the consolation final winner in most of the individual events is worth nine points.  Tenth place is worth 7 as the points go down to 1 for 16^th place.
 
Relay points are worth double and each school is permitted to enter just one relay team provided they met the NCAA qualifying standard in that relay event throughout the season.  Teams that have four or more individual qualifying swimmers are also permitted to also enter a relay team as an optional entry in relay events.
 
Event Entries & Limits
 
Each individual athlete can swim in up to seven total events and are further limited to no more than four individual events.  A total of 157 men and 183 women were selected to the field as "invited swimmers" in one or more individual events.  However, all of those invited swimmers are eligible to enter other events provided they have a "B" cut qualifying time in that event from some point throughout the season.
 
The complete list of pre-meet entries can be seen here although it is worth nothing that some swimmers may scratch out of events as the week goes along to get under their event limit or to focus on their primary events.
 
Follow the Mavs
 
For those not attending the meet in person, there are lots of way to follow the Mavs' national title pursuits.
 
The NCAA will stream the official championship meet on NCAA.com.  Those free streams can be accessed here.
 
Live results can also be found here.
 
Daily recaps will be posted on www.cmumavericks.com.
 
Fans should also follow the team's Instagram account (@cmu_swimdive) for behind the scenes content from Indiana.
 
Roster Breakdown
 
Including the 13 divers in Tuesday's pre-championship diving qualification meet, the Mavs have 43 athletes in Indiana this week, the most of any school in the country.
 
The Maverick women have 14 individual swimmers, equal to second most of any team alongside Nova Southeastern.  Tampa has a meet-leading 18.
 
Ada Qunell is the top seed in the 200-yard freestyle relay.  Fellow senior Olivia Hansson is seeded second in both the 500 and 1,650 freestyle events and is third in the 1,000.
 
Taylar Hooton is tied for second in the 100 backstroke while Melina Giraudeau is third in the 200 breaststroke.
 
The Mav women are also seeded second in the 800 free relay and fourth in both the 200 and 400 medley relays.
 
The Mavs' list of 14 men's qualifiers trails only Tampa's 15 for the most of any team in the country.
 
Guillaume Guth headlines the Mavs' list and is seeded second in both the 100 and 200 free events while also ranking amongst the top five in both the 100 fly and 50 free.
 
Fellow Maverick newcomer Oskar Sawicki, who helped Indianapolis win NCAA titles in the 200 medley relay at the past two national championships, is seeded fifth in the 100 fly.
 
Aron Jonsson is seeded third in the 200 breast while Luka Samsonov is ranked fifth in the 200 back.
 
A complete breakdown of the Maverick qualifiers, can be seen here in the Mavs' meet qualification announcement.
 
Looking back a month
 
The Mavericks had a successful Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship meet a month ago from Feb. 10-14 in the El Pomar Natatorium.
 
The Maverick men and women swept the RMAC titles for the eighth straight year, winning 32 of the 42 events while claiming 71 of the meet's total medals.
 
The rest of the conference won 56 medals— combined.
 
CMU's men won 17 events and 38 medals while tallying, 1,234 team points   They finished 471head of second place Colorado School of Mines.  The Maverick women claimed 15 events and 33 medals and took the title with 1,870 ½ points in a different scoring system than the men.  They were 566 ahead of second place Mines.
 
Awards Sweep
 
The Mavericks also swept the RMAC Swimmer and Diver of the Meet awards, based on the high point scoring reports.
 
Olivia Hansson claimed the RMAC Women's Swimmer of the Meet after winning three individual and four overall titles.  She won the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyle crowns.
 
Aron Jonsson won the men's award with 72 team points.  He won the three gold and five total medals throughout the week.
 
Meanwhile, Kenya Meyer was named as the RMAC Women's Diver of the Meet after sweeping both diving events.  Ryan Campbell and David Roethlisberger shared the men's award after they each won an event while finishing second behind the other throughout the meet.

In the polls
 
Both Maverick teams remained in the third (women's) and fourth (men's) spots of the monthly College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) NCAA Division II Top 25 Dual Meet poll.  The final and March edition was released last Friday.
 
The poll committees, consisting of Division II coaches, assesses, and ranks the nation's top 25 dual meet teams in monthly polls.  Their evaluation considers head-to-head dual meet outcomes, performances since the last rankings, season-long performances, dual meet records, roster changes (such as injuries), and data from the SwimCloud Simulator. It is important to note that the poll's objective is not to predict the top finishers in a championship meet format.
 
Swimcloud Rankings
 
The Maverick teams also hold the same positions in the Swimcloud's Division II championship rankings.   The Maverick women are third with 687.37 points and trail only Tampa (694.81) and defending national champion Nova Southeastern (687.63).
 
The Maverick men have 729.45 points and rank fourth behind Drury (743.95), Tampa (742.02) and Indianapolis (737.98).
 
All of the rankings are mathematically compiled based on times reported to the site.
 
Returning National Champs
 
Antonia Leese, Kiara Borchardt and Ada Qunell all return as members of the Mavs' women's 400-yard medley relay team that won the NCAA title for the second straight time in 2025.  Borchardt and Qunell were also members of the 2024 winning team
 
Qunell, a 4-time national champion, also helped the Mavs win the 200 and 400 Freestyle relay teams in 2024.  Elli Williams also returns for her senior season after teaming with Qunell and others on those winning teams.
 
National Championship Run
 
Excluding, 2020 when the national championship meet was canceled 1 ½ days in due to the initial stages of the COVID pandemic, the Mavericks have won at least one national championship event every year since 2018, a streak they will hope to continue into 2026.
 
They won three national titles last year, winning the women's 400-medley relay for the second straight year while Agata Naskret, who now swims for West Florida, took the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events.
 
All-American List
 
The Mavericks roster or returning all-Americans is quite lengthy and impressive.
 
The Mavericks had a program-record 30 different individuals combine for 82 CSCAA All-America honors at last year's championships.  The Mavericks have 20 total returning all-Americans on this year's roster, including one who earned honors in 2023.
 
The returning group from 2025 earned a combined total of 42 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 who are part of the national team along with the number of honors each received in 2025 and the total number in their career.
 
Women
Kiara Borchardt (3/9)
Talia Datilio (1/1)
Olivia Hansson (5/10)
Taylar Hooton (1/1)
Reagan Horn (1/1)
Antonia Leese (3/3)
Mimi Licht (1/1)
Kenya Meyer (1/1)
Sydnee O'Neil (2/2)
Ada Qunell (4/13)
Hanna Sasivarevic (1/1)
Kendyll Wilkinson (3/3)
 
Men
Ryan Campbell (2/2)
Marcos Otero (1/2)
David Roethlisberger (2/2)
Luka Samsonov (3/3)
Richard Schmiedefeld (5/5)
Gavyn Tatge (1/1)
Ben Vester (1/1)
 
NCAA History
 
The Mavericks have fared well at previous national championships but are still in search of a first team title.
 
The Maverick women's team has finished amongst the nation's top five in each of the past four seasons, placing third a year ago.  Their best finish was in 2024, when they took second.  They also finished fourth in 20223 and fifth in 2022.
 
The Maverick men have finished amongst the nation's top ten in each of the last four seasons and are poised for their best ever finish this year.  They took fifth in both 2023 and 2024 after taking sixth in 2022.  They finished ninth last year.
 
Colorado Mesa turns 100
 
The CMU Century Celebration stands as the cornerstone of Colorado Mesa University's year-long centennial celebration. This ambitious initiative unites our community in honoring a rich heritage while boldly envisioning the next hundred years of academic excellence.

Led by the Steering Committee and six specialized sub-committees, we're orchestrating a transformative experience that will resonate through generations. Each committee brings unique expertise to create an unforgettable commemoration of our past, present and future.
 
To learn more about Colorado Mesa's 100-year celebration, visit cmucentury.com.