Division II Swimmer of the Year Ben Sampson is staying at Colorado Mesa after entering the transfer portal this spring and taking recruiting visits to Texas, Cal, and Arizona State.
“I will be continuing my college swimming career at Colorado Mesa University,” Sampson told SwimSwam. “I was able to visit amazing schools and meet incredible athletes and coaches. After all of it though, I realized I wasn’t ready to leave what I have. Colorado Mesa, the coaches and my teammates have given me so much and I’m not ready to let that go. I am going to stay one more year.”
Sampson has two years of collegiate eligibility remaining, so his statement leaves open the option for a graduate transfer. Back when he entered the portal, he said “it will take a lot to get me to leave but I wanted to look at schools with good backstroke programs that can push me to the next level.”
As a junior at March’s NCAA Division II Championships, Sampson won the 200 backstroke and 200 IM while adding a 3rd-place finish in the 400 IM and 4th-place finish in the 100 backstroke. His 71 individual points led Colorado Mesa University to a 4th-place finish as a team, the best result in program history.
Sampson has a total of 14 CSCAA All-America awards on his register. He has also won 15 RMAC conference titles and 20 All-RMAC Honors, and was named the RMAC Swimmer of the Year in each of the past two seasons.
He was also named a CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American this season, one of a nation-leading four for the Mavericks.
Most of Sampson’s best times came as altitude-converted midseason swims at the Colorado Mesa Invitational. That meet was swum at 5,000 feet of altitude, allowing an adjustment to his results, though his NCAA Championship times didn’t quite match up.
Best Times Progression (times adjusted for altitude where appropriate):
| HS BEST | 1ST YEAR AT CMU | 2ND YEAR AT CMU | 3RD YEAR AT CMU | |
| 50 free | 22.06 | 20.01 | 20.10 | 19.89 |
| 100 free | 47.12 | 44.53 | 45.34 | 44.15 |
| 200 free | 1:44.16 | 1:44.75 | 1:38.46 | 1:35.58 |
| 100 back | 52.21 | 47.92 | 46.36 | 46.06 |
| 200 back | 1:57.36 | N/A | 1:42.68 | 1:39.97 |
| 200 IM | N/A | N/A | 1:46.41 | 1:43.76 |
| 400 IM | N/A | N/A | N/A | 3:45.23 |
A native of Colorado, Sampson swam at Ralston Valley High School. He was a relative latecomer to the serious side of the sport, which is demonstrated in his wild progressions above. He didn’t even swim a 400 IM before his junior season at CMU, and still placed 4th at the NCAA D-II Championship meet.
Sampson is a sport management major with a 3.888 GPA.
Braden Keith contributed to this report.
CMU going to have a huge season this year
Biggest error since Seahawks passing instead of running it
He seems to be doing quite fine where he is – best of luck!
Weird that SMU didn’t want this guy.