GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University is sending a national-leading 13 divers to compete in Tuesday's NCAA Division II Pre-Championship qualification meet in Evansville, Indiana.

The Maverick have seven men and six women in the pre-championship diving qualification meet, hoping to be amongst the 22 women and 18 men, who will advance to the official championships, which will include one diving event on each day (Wednesday through Saturday).

The Mavericks will be looking to join their swimming counterparts in the official championships, which begin Tuesday evening with the 800-yard freestyle relays.

The four championship diving events will then be held one per day, Wednesday through Saturday.

Action for Tuesday's competition will begin at 10 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. Mountain) with the men's 1-meter and women's 3-meter events.  The athletes will then flip to the other board for another 2 p.m. CDT (1 p.m. Mountain) session that will feature competition on the men's 3-meter and women's 1-meter.

Live Results of the diving competitions throughout the week can be seen on DiveMeets.com.

The official NCAA Championships, including the four diving events, will be streamed live on NCAA.com.  The pre-championship qualifier is not slated to be streamed.

The preliminary rounds of each official championship diving event will begin at 1 p.m. CDT (Noon Mountain) each day with the championship final being contested during the evening finals sessions, which begin at 5:30 p.m. EDT (4:30 p.m. Mountain) each evening.

How it works
 
On Tuesday, the Maverick divers will perform six optional dives on both the 1 and 3-meter boards.  The top nine men and top 11 women on each board will qualify for the championship to contest both 11-dive events during the rest of the week, provided they completed both competitions on Tuesday.  If there are any divers, who finish amongst that top group on both boards, then additional spots will be handed out, one at a time, based on the qualification meet finish, alternating boards beginning with the 1-meter, until the diving quota is met.
 
A total of 41 men will be fighting for the 18 official championship spots.  The competition just as fierce on the women's side with 43 women battling it out for one of the 22 available spots.

To reach this stage, all entered divers had to reach the NCAA Championship qualification standards at least twice during the season.  They had to have a 6-dive score and an 11-dive score on either board.  Those scores had to come from at least two different meets.

Qualifiers

The list of Maverick qualifiers includes seven men and six women, 11 of which have been to the pre-championship meet in previous years.

The list of Maverick men includes Giani Benoit, Ryan Campbell, Aiden Coon, Jax Juarros, Asa Keim, Ty Mitton and David Roethlisberger.  The six CMU women who will compete are Talia Datilio, Jenna Hurley, Juli Holt, Emma Lence, Mimi Licht and Kenya Meyer.

Freshmen Giani Benoit and Asa Keim will be making their national meet debuts.

All of the other Maverick 11 divers are returning qualifiers.

Meyer will be making her fourth appearance while Hurley and Roethlisberger will be going for the third straight year.
 
RMAC Medal Sweeps

The Maverick men and women combined to sweep all 12 medals at last month's RMAC Championships.

Kenya Meyer won both of the women's events and was named as the RMAC Championship Co-Diver of Meet for the second straight year after successfully defending her titles on both boards.

Meanwhile, Jenna Hurley took second on the 3-meter before placing third on the 1-meter.  Talia Datilio took second on the 1-meter and third on the 3-meters.

Ryan Campbell and David Roethlisbegerger split the men's titles and were tabbed as the RMAC Championship Divers of the Meet.  Campbell won the 1-meter ahead of Roethlisberger while Roethlisberger won the 3-meter ahead of Campbell.

Ty Mitton claimed the bronze medal on both boards.

The other Maverick divers competed as exhibition athletes due to roster limitations and were not eligible to advance to the finals nor post an official placement.  However, they fared quite well in the morning preliminary rounds posting a multitude of NCAA qualification scores that were generally higher than the opposition.

Returning All-Americans

The Mavs are returning five divers who earned All-America honors while scoring team points at last year's NCAA Championships.

Kenya Meyer claimed a seventh place finish on the 3-meter board at last year's NCAA Championships to garner a first career CSCAA All-America.  Mimi Licht finished eighth on the 1-meter while both took 17^th on the opposite boards.

Talia Datilio earned a second team honor with a 13^th place finish on the 3-meter last year.

On the men's side, Campbell and Roethlisberger both earned a pair of second team all-America honors.  Campbell placed 11^th on the 3-meter and 12^th on the 1-meter board while Roethlisberger placed14^th on the 3-meter and 16^th on the 1-meter.

Strength in Numbers

The Mavs' contingent of 13 divers is far larger than any other school in Tuesday's meet.

The Maverick men's group of seven in three more than Clarion's group of four.  Davenport, Delta State and Grand Valley State qualified three men each for Tuesday's competition.

Clarion, Drury and Grand Valley State all have four women's qualifiers to trail CMU's group of six.

Multi-Pronged Success

Maverick freshman Asa Keim took advantage of the CMU Last Chance Meet on Feb. 21, recording NCAA qualification scores on both diving boards, ensuring his qualification for Tuesday's competition.

A week later, the Grain Valley, Missouri native was competing for the Maverick track and field team at the RMAC Indoor Championships.  He earned a pair of all-conference honors, placing third in the pole vault and sixth in the heptathlon, a points-based competition of seven different disciplines over two days.

Keim did not compete at the RMAC Swimming & Diving Championships.  He was competing at the Mountain Lion Open that weekend.