Colorado Mesa Continues To Roll At A3 Invitational

by SwimSwam 0

November 23rd, 2019 College, News

2019 A3 PERFORMANCE INVITATIONAL

Courtesy: Colorado Mesa Athletics

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Swimming & Diving teams set five new meet records, including one that lasted for just hours, and combined for 28 NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying times as they continued to dominate the A3 Performance Invitational here at the El Pomar Natatorium.

The Mavericks also had eight different divers hit NCAA qualifying scores on Friday, the third day of the meet.

CMU’s men, ranked 11th nationally according to the latest TYR/CSCAA Division II Top 25 Poll, have won all 15 events of the meet thus far and lead No. 23 Mines by 473 (1,163-690).  The other three men’s teams in the meet have 501 combined points.

The Mavericks won all seven events on Friday as six different individuals claimed victories before the team capped the night with an 800-yard freestyle relay win.

Meanwhile, CMU’s women, ranked ninth nationally, won four more events on Saturday while setting a pair of meet records.  They now have 1,038 points and a 515-point lead over Mines, which has 523 after getting back-to-back event wins on Friday evening.  Dixie State also had a win on the day and is third with 479 points while Western Colorado leads the rest of the 7-team field with 334.

The pool was fast from the start as the Mavericks set ten NCAA qualifying times and three new meet records in the preliminary session alone.

The first record-breaking performance came from Pedro Terres-Illescas, who posted a time of 48.24 seconds in the 100 fly to break Chris Radomski’s 2017 meet standard of 48.77 by more than a half-second.  The Spanish born school-record holder and 2019 NCAA Division II National Runner-Up then went even better in the evening finals session, recording a time of 47.77 seconds, which is just a single one-hundredth off his own-school record of 47.66 with the altitude adjustment of a tenth.

The Mavericks also had five other finishers in the top seven of the 100 fly, including Tucker Adams and Treven Wertz, who tied for third at 49.92 seconds.

Sophomore Mahmoud Elgayar also broke his own meet record in the 100 breaststroke prelims with a time of 54.48, bettering last year’s mark of 54.56.  Elgayar then won the finals in 54.65 while Matthew Barrett finished third with another NCAA “B” cut time of 55.61.

On the women’s side, freshman Lauren White etched her name into the meet record book twice.  In the morning preliminaries, she finished the 100 back in 55.13 seconds to shave 0.16 off Wyoming’s Emily Stevens mark of 55.29, which had been set in 2016.  She then won in the finals, touching in 55.58 seconds to join runner-up and sophomore teammate Sarah Fillerup (56.11) as NCAA provisional qualifiers.

White then came back to post an national provisional qualifying lead-off split of 1:53.39 as the Mavs set the final meet record of the night in the 800 free relay.  CMU finished in 7:38.89 to best Wyoming’s 2014 mark of 7:39.56, which had been one of the oldest records in the book.  Maddie Pressler, who set a pair of 200 free “B” cut times during the day, Abbey Selin and Isabelle Hansson were also on that relay team.

Hansson also enjoyed some individual success as she set the tone for the night coming from behind to win the 400 individual medley in a “B” cut time of 4:29.80.  Freshman Davy Brown and junior Grace Payton also set national times to finish third and fourth, respectively.  Brown was clocked in 4:30.27 while Payton touched in 4:34.34.

Mines then got back-to-back wins in the 100 fly and 200 free from Daphne Williams (55.63) and Mia Wood (1:50.83), who is now a 3-event winner.

CMU’s Noel Scott (56.21), Candice Rosen (56.32) and Bella Walters (57.42) were second, third and fourth in the 100 fly while Pressler took third in the 200 free at 1:52.63.  Selin was fifth in that event at 1:55.61.

In the 100 breast, Dixie State’s Hannah Hansen hung on for a win in a time of 1:03.34.  CMU’s Samantha White pushed her to the end and also set a NCAA “B” cut time of 1:03.70 in the finals after going even quicker (1:03.38) to emerge as the top qualifier out of the preliminaries.

CMU’s other women’s win came in the afternoon from sophomore Jolynn Harris, who won the 1-meter diving competition with 450.05 points, a mark just slightly off her preliminary score of 451.10 points.

Brittany Dixon (444.15), Ali Lange (403.65) and Natalya Dahlke (394.65) also surpassed the national qualifying standard of 390 points as the Mavs took the top five spots with Jaclyn Santiago (365.50) rounding out the effort.

On the men’s side, the Mavericks’ other individual winners were freshman Ethan Fox (400 IM, 4:01.40), Jackson Wuthrich (200 Free, 1:39.82), Lane Austin (100 Back, 49.20) and Noah Macomber (3m Diving, 542.40).

Fox and Nico Tscherner (4:04.35), who had also set provisional qualifying time in the morning, went 1-2 for the Mavs in the evening session opener.

Wuthrich has now won all three of his individual events of the meet, after winning the 500 and 1,000-yard disciplines on the previous two nights.  Teammates Logan Ellis (1:40.94) and Justin Fell (1:40.95) also set NCAA provisional qualifying times as the Mavs took the top four places in Friday’s 4-lapper.

Austin set a NCAA qualifying time in both sessions, turning in a time of 49.02 seconds in the prelims before winning the final by more than a half-second.  Freshman Alex Bruce was third in 50.98 as the Mavs have five of the top seven finishers overall.

On the higher diving board, Macomber won by 14.2 points over teammate Chandler Livingston (528.20).  Tanner Belliston (473.70) also eclipsed the NCAA standard of 460 points to finish third while Noah Luna took fourth with 443.55 points after turning in a 6-dive NCAA qualifying score during the preliminaries.

Wuthrich then set another NCAA time of 1:40.36 on his leadoff 200-yard leg of the 800 free relay, which the Mavs won in 6:46.94.  Fell, Ellis and Noah Beaver were the other legs on that winning team.

Saturday’s portion of the meet, which will wrap up the team-scoring, will include a preliminary session at 10 a.m.  The finals will begin at 4 p.m.

A set of long-course time trials will be contested Sunday morning at 10 a.m.

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