EVANSVILLE, Ind.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick men recorded national runner-up finishes in back-to-back events at the end of Friday, the fourth night of the 2026 NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships as they moved up a spot to third place in the overall team standings with one day remaining.
 
Meanwhile, the Maverick women registered three podium finishes plus a consolation final win in school-record setting time as they stand in fourth place with Saturday's portion of the meet to come.
 
The Mavs scored in all 11 events contested throughout the evening and are locked in tight battles for final team scoring position.
 
CMU's men now have 330 team points, already a new NCAA Championship program record, and are nearly certain of claiming their trophy-winning finish in program history.  They are six ahead of fourth place Indianapolis and a full 131 ½ ahead of fifth place McKendree.
 
Drury leads the way with 384 while Tampa is just 2 ½ points behind.
 
On the women's side, the Mavs now have 224 ½ points, trailing Drury by just 4 ½.  The Mavs are four points ahead of Indianapolis and 13 ahead of fifth place West Florida as they look to finish in the top four for what would be a fourth straight year.
 
Nova Southeastern is closing in on a fourth straight title with 374 points, 65 ½ clear of Sunshine State Conference rival Tampa.
 
The Maverick men also had a school-record setting effort as the men's 200 free relay team of Guillaume Guth, Richard Schmiedefeld, Marcos Otero and Oskar Sawicki posted a mark of 1:17.37 while falling just a single hundredth of a second shy of a national crown, which Tampa won after touching in 1:17.36.
 
That came a few minutes after the Maverick men scored 55 team points in the 3-meter diving event thanks to a 2-5-6-8 finish.

Ryan Campbell led that charge with 571.90 points and finishes his career with a pair of national runner-up finishes this week.  The Delmar, New York native also took second in Thursday's 1-meter event after claiming Second Team CSCAA All-America honors in both diving events last season.
 
Meanwhile, Jax Juarros, fifth with 539.35 points, David Roethlisberger, sixth with 524.75 points and freshman Giani Benoit, eighth with 462.70 points joined him on the podium as First Team CSCAA All-Americans. 
 
The honor was the first of Benoit's career.  Roethlisberger also claimed his initial first team accolade and his fourth overall all-America certificate.
 
Juarros ended up on the podium in both events this week, after taking eighth in Wednesday's 1-meter.
 
In the men's relay, Guth went out in a quick 19.55 seconds but was 0.44 behind Tampa's Tibor Tistan, who blazed to a 19.11 opening 50-freestyle split.  However, Schmiedefeld brought the Mavs back within two tenths with a 19.21 second split.
 
Otero then sliced the deficit even further with a 19.23 split before Sawicki finished his leg in 19.38 seconds to nearly pull off the win, out-dueling his Spartan anchor counterpart by 0.14 seconds..
 
Despite the heart-breaking result, the Mavs went well under their pre-meet psych sheet leading and former school-record time of 1:18.04.
 
That came after the Maverick women's 200 free relay team of Reagan Horn,  Ada Qunell, Taylar Hooton and Kiara Borchardt finished tenth in a season-best time of 1:32.48 to garner second team all-America honors.
 
The Maverick women got the evening session off to a fast start as Olivia Hansson and Hanna Sasivarevic both turned in podium finishes in the 500 free.  Hansson finished fourth in 4:51.25 while Sasivarevic touched seventh in 4:54.59.
 
Jonas Friess then posted a time of 4:26.61 in the men's 500 free, placing 15^th overall while swimming in the consolation final.
 
Hooton then claimed an eighth place finish in the women's 100 backstroke, touching in 55.52 seconds.
 
Meanwhile, Schmiedefeld and Luka Samsonov then finished 13^th and 14^th in the men's half of the event, respectively.  Schmiedefeld finished in 47.91 seconds while Samsonov touched in 48.19.
 
Melina Giraudeau then registered the first of two straight consolation final wins for the Mavs as she took the women's 100 breast race win in 1:01.64 while breaking Lily Borgenheimer's 4-year old school-record by a single hundredth of a second.
 
Aron Jonson then duplicated the ninth place overall finish as he won the men's consolation final in 53.76 seconds.  Otero was also in that race, placing fifth in the heat and 13^th overall with a time of 54.29 seconds.
 
Freshman Eva Lehmkuhler then claimed her first career all-America honor with a 14^th place time of 2:04.74 in the 200 butterfly after reaching the consolation final.
 
Fellow freshman Micah Moore then finished two places better in the men's half of the event, taking 12^th in 1:46.58.
 
Action then moved to the aforementioned diving event and then in to the relays.
 
The fifth and final day of the meet will begin at 10 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. Mountain) with preliminary swimming heats in the 100 Free, 200 Back and 200 Breast before the slower seeded sections of the 1,650 Free.
 
The women's 1-meter diving preliminaries will then begin at 1 p.m. CDT (Noon Mountain) before the final session of the meet will begin at 5:30 p.m. CDT (4:30 p.m. Mountain).
 
The 400 Free relays will be the last two of the meet's 42 total events.