Courtesy: CMU Athletics
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick swim team will aim to extend their home invitational winning streaks and to post a multitude of national-qualifying times when the Mavericks host the TYR/CMU Invitational, beginning Wednesday evening at the El Pomar Natatorium.
The 3 ½-day meet, which will include five women’s and four men’s teams, runs through Saturday evening and has typically been a bonanza of fast times for the Mavs, a trend they will hope to continue throughout the week.
Wednesday’s action, which will include timed finals in three events will begin at 6 p.m.
Preliminary swimming heats will then be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, beginning at 10 a.m. Finals on Thursday and Friday will begin at 5 p.m. while Saturday’s finals session will commence an hour earlier at 4 p.m.
A complete event schedule can be found in the Meet Information packet.
Live results can be accessed here (HTML format) or with a subscription to the MeetMobile app.
A basic live stream of each session can be seen on the RMAC Network.
Meet Format & The Opposition
The Mavericks will welcome in three NCAA Division I opponents in Northern Arizona, Utah and Wyoming as well as Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Colorado School of Mines. Northern Arizona only has a women’s program and Utah will only have a partial squad of swimmers as they are also sending a larger chunk of their team to a separate meet at Texas A&M.
Diving events will not be contested as the Maverick divers will are instead heading to the Lumberjack Diving Invitational.
A total of 19 swimming event for each gender, including five relays will be contested this week. The relays and long-distance freestyle events (1000 & 1650) will be contested as finals against time. The other 12 events will have morning preliminaries to shape the field for the evening finals session. A total of 16 swimmers will advance to the finals in each of those events with the top 8 qualifying for the “A Final” while the 9th-16th qualifiers will contest the “B Final”. A bonus or “C” final may also take place in some events but will not factor into the team scores.
Team points will be awarded to the top 16 finishers and relay teams under the standard invitational scoring method with 20 points going to the winner. Relay finishes are worth double.
Individual swimmers are limited to four individual and seven total events for team-scoring purposes but are also allowed to swim additional events as an exhibition swimmer and are permitted one time trial opportunity in each event to potentially set additional national-qualifying marks.
Time trials will be held at the end of each session.
Senior Day
A group of 15 Maverick swimmers will be recognized during Senior Day festivities on Saturday at 3:45 p.m., prior to that day’s finals session.
That list includes Gavin Anderson, Sophia Bains, Forrest Frazier, Kuba Kiszczak, Jeremy Koch, Matheus Laperriere, Kate Leary, Katerina Matoskova, Jason McMechan, Austin Patterson, Andrew Scoggin, Jacob Troescher, Dejan Urbanek, Lucas Viana and John Walgast.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks were last in action on Nov. 2 as they split their squad for road duals at Division I Colorado State and Denver on the front range.
The Maverick men were at Denver and won seven different individual events plus the 400-yard medley relay at the start of the dual, but dropped a narrow 157-143 decision to the Pioneers, who have won 10 of the last 11 Summit League titles.
Booking a title defense
Maverick backstroker Agata Naskret set a Moby Pool record and NCAA Division II Championship automatic qualifying time of 53.46 (53.36-altitude adjusted) seconds in the 100-yard backstroke at the Colorado State dual. The Polish junior leads the Division II performers list by 1.57 seconds with that difficult to acheive “A” cut mark and is the only Maverick swimmer assured of a trip to this year’s NCAA Championships thus far although the Mavericks have set numerous other NCAA provisional qualifying times and look to add to that total at this week’s meet.
Naskret won the NCAA Division II title in both that and 200-yard backstroke in 2024. She also helped the Mavericks win three relays and was named as the RMAC Swimmer of the Year for the 2023-24 campaign.
First Time Winners
German freshman Richard Schmeidefeld and Ben Vester were amongst the Mavericks’ winners in the Nov. 2 men’s dual at Denver. Those wins were the first of their collegiate careers. Both men hail from the German city of Stuttgart and were classmates at Wirtemberg Gymnasium before starting their collegiate careers at CMU this fall. Schmeidefeld won the 200 Free in 1:41.78 (1:40.58-altitude adjusted) while Vester won the 400 IM in 4:05.30 (4:00.30-altitude adjusted).
CMU Invitational History
This week’s meet will be the 14th mid-season invitational that the Mavericks have hosted annually since 2010 although the 2020 version was canceled due to COVID issues.
For sponsorship reasons, the name has been changed to the TYR/CMU Invitational, a change made in 2022.
Meet History: Team Score Spreadsheet | Event Champions & Record Book
The Maverick men have won 12 of the previous 13 titles, including each of the last seven since 2016.
They set a meet scoring record of 1,754 points and won by an incredible 999 points in 2018. They won last year’s meet with 1508 ½ points, nearly doubling Wyoming’s second place total of 767. The Colorado School of Mines, had finished second in the six previous years but took third with 696 points last year.
CMU’s women have been just as dominant winning seven straight and ten of the previous 13 meets.
The Mavs set a scoring record of 1,465 points in 2019 and won by more than 700 points in both 2018 and 2019 before sharing the title with Division I Northern Arizona in 2021 as both teams incredibly finished with 1,168 points that year.
CMU then defeated the Lumberjacks by 52 points in 2022, in a meet that did not include diving as the Mavericks instead went to Flagstaff, Arizona for a diving invitational.
CMU’s women were 139 points better than Wyoming last year while Northern Arizona took third with 788. However, it should be noted that diving events helped the Mavericks to that victory last year, a luxury they will not have this year. CMU was the only team to have divers compete in last year’s meet.
The Mines women took fourth out of seven teams last year with 369 points after finishing second or third at the previous seven editions of the meet since 2015. been third at each of the last three meets after taking second in the previous four.
Cal Baptist’s women won in 2013 and 2015 while Wyoming claimed the 2014 victory and will be looking to add a second title a decade after their first.
Re-Matches
Although the meet will be contested with an invitational-style scoring system that tends to reward depth more than just event victories, this weekend’s meet should be quite competitive, especially on the women’s side.
Utah and Wyoming will be making their second trips of the season to the El Pomar Natatorium. The Mavericks and Utah Utes split dual meet decisions during the season-opening Intermountain Shootout on Oct. 4 and 5. The Mavericks’ Day 1 victory over the Utes was their first in program history and was the second over a Big XII Conference foe in as many years (BYU, 2023).
Meanwhile, Wyoming came to Grand Junction on Oct. 26 for a head-to-head dual. The Wyoming Cowgirls won that dual, 185-115 and enjoying a very strong season, having posted a perfect 5-0 record in dual meets while placing second out of five teams at their only previous invitational (Air Force).
Northern Arizona has won 11 straight Western Athletic Conference titles and have battled to the very end against the Mavericks at each of the past three TYR/CMU Invitationals. The Lumberjacks tied the Mavericks in 2021 and were just 62 points behind the Mavs in 2022 before slipping back to third place in 2023 behind CMU and Wyoming last year.
The Maverick men have also swum against Utah and Wyoming this year. The Utes claimed 124-78 and 108-91 wins over the Mavs during Intermountain Shootout Dual meets at the start of the season but will be hard-pressed to repeat those victories as they are only bringing a limited squad to the invitational.
Meanwhile, the Maverick men claimed their first dual meet win in the rivalry with the Cowboys on Oct. 26, by a convincing 203-97 margin.
The Colorado School of Mines has also been a worthy opponent for the Mavericks in recent years. The Oredigger men are currently 3-0 in dual meets and took second behind the Mavericks at last year’s RMAC Championships after taking third at last year’s CMU Invitational.
The Mines women are also 3-1 in duals this year with their lone loss coming to Division I New Mexico State also took second at the 2024 RMAC Championships.
Mines has competed at the CMU Invitational every year it has been held except for 2012.
Record Re-Writes
Last year’s TYR/CMU Invitational proved to be the fastest in meet history by a wide margin as meet records were set in 27 (14 men’s, 13 women’s) different swimming events last year.
The Mavericks did their part, setting 14 (7 men’s, 7 women’s) of those new records while winning 23 (13 men’s, 10 women’s) events last year, including a sweep of the diving events.
Defending Champions
The Mavericks will have four individuals who will be looking to repeat their TYR/CMU Invitational wins from a year ago. The Mavs also won seven of the ten relays last year.
The Mavs’ defending individual champions are Agata Naskret (Women’s 100 Back), Austin Patterson (Men’s 50 Free), Jacob Troescher (Men’s 1000 Free) and Mauricio Posados (Men’s 100 Breast).
Awards Sweep
The Mavericks have swept the RMAC Athlete of the Week awards in both of their opportunities this season.
Jenna Hurley and Jax Juarros have both been named as the RMAC Divers of the Week on Oct. 9 and Nov. 6. Olivia Hansson and Andrew Scoggin were named as the RMAC Swimmers of the Week on Oct. 9 after the season-opening Intermountain Shootout while Harry Stacey and Agata Naskret won the awards on Nov. 6, which factored in results from both the Wyoming duals and the Colorado State/Denver split weekend.
RMAC awards were not awarded last week as less than 50 percent of the conference teams competed the week prior.
In the polls
The Mavericks were picked sixth in the latest monthly CSCAA (College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of American) NCAA Division II Top 25 Dual Meet polls. The November edition was released last Friday (Nov. 15).
The Maverick women were picked first in the October edition of the poll while the Maverick men remained steady.
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.
Record Setting Relays
The Mavericks re-wrote much of their record book in 2023-24, setting new school records in all ten relay events at least once during the year. Six of the ten current records were set during the NCAA Division II National Championships, where the Mavs won their first three relay titles in program history, taking the 400 Medley, 200 Free and 400 Free Relay titles on the women’s side.
The other four relay records were all set at last year’s TYR/CMU Invitational.
National Champions
The Mavericks swam to 11 national championships in 2023-24 after winning three events in the previous two years, their first swimming national titles. The Maverick men have also won seven national diving event crowns since 2018.
The Mavericks will return one of their three individual national champions from 2024 in Agata Naskret, who won both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke titles, doing so with school-record times.
Naskret was also a member of all three of the aforementioned championship winning relay teams, which all set school-records as well.
In total, the Mavericks return ten of the combined 12 legs from those relay teams this year. Ada Qunell was also a member of all three winning relays while Elli Williams swam on the 200 and 400 Free teams. Maddi Moran and Kiara Borchardt were the middle breaststroke and butterfly legs on the 400 Medley Relay squad.
However, the Mavs will have to replace some of the greatest swimmers in program history, who won titles last year. Lauren White anchored the 200 and 400 Free Relay teams and ended her 5-year CMU career with 30 all-America honors.
The Mavs also graduated 200 and 400 IM champion Benedict Nagy, who is now a volunteer assistant coach for the Mavs after using her fifth year of eligibility with the Mavs. On the men’s side, the Mavs will have to replace Ben Sampson, who completed his bachelor’s degree and his 4-year Maverick career with six national titles amongst a multitude of honors. Sampson is now using his COVID waiver and fifth season of eligibility at Division I Power Texas, under the direction of Coach Bob Bowman.
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 2025.
All-American List
The Mavericks roster or returning all-Americans is quite lengthy and impressive.
The Mavericks had 21 different individuals combine for 77 CSCAA All-America honors at last year’s championships. The Mavericks return 15 of those people to this year’s roster and have 19 total returning all-Americans on this year’s roster, including four who earned honors in 2023.
The returning group from 2024 earned a combined total of 55 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 16th place finishers are Second Team/Honorable Mention selections.
Here’s a list of CMU’s returning all-Americans along with the number of honors each received in 2024 and the total number in their career.
Women
Sophia Bains (2/3)
Kiara Borchardt (3/6)
Olivia Hansson (2/5)
Katerina Matoskova (8/14)
Maddi Moran (4/5)
Agata Naskret (7/7)
Ada Qunell (5/9)
Elli Williams (4/4)
Men
Max Ayres (2/2)
Wyatt Hermanson (0/2)
Kuba Kiszczak (5/12)
Matheus Laperriere (0/7)
Jameson McEnaney (4/4)
Jackson Moe (0/1)
Marcos Otero (1/1)
Austin Patterson (1/1)
Andrew Scoggin (4/5)
Dejan Urbanek (3/11)
Dawson Wilson (0/2)
RMAC Dual Streak
The Maverick women extended their RMAC dual meet winning streak to 36 with the convincing 174-27 and 174-26 wins over CSU Pueblo on both dates of the Intermountain Shootout weekend at the start of the season.
CMU’s dual meet winning streak dates back nearly nine years to Jan. 22, 2016.
Those two decisions over CSU Pueblo are the only RMAC duals on the Mavs’ 2024-25 schedule, which will be almost entirely against NCAA Division I competition in the leadup to the RMAC and NCAA Division II Championships.
The Maverick men are not slated to have any duals against RMAC foes this season. They have won 13 straight RMAC duals since the 2016-17 season.
However, both Maverick squads will face off with an RMAC foe this weekend in the Colorado School of Mines, slated to be their only remaining intra-conference competition before the RMAC Championships.
Division I Schedule
As in recent years, Maverick Head Coach Mickey Wender has built a schedule that will pit the Mavericks against many of the top programs in the Mountain Time Zone and the Western United States as a whole. The Mavericks are slated to compete against NCAA Division I foes in each of their eight regular season meets leading into the RMAC and NCAA Division II Championships.
The Mavericks have already faced off with BYU, Colorado State, Denver, Utah and Wyoming.
After competing against Northern Arizona, Utah and Wyoming this week, the Mavs will then head to the UNLV Invitational before the holiday break from Dec. 16-18 before coming back from the break to face Utah on Jan. 10. The Mavs will then wrap up the pre-championship season at the Air Force Dual Meet Invitational, which has now been moved back a week to Jan. 24-25
The Maverick divers will also compete at Northern Arizona’s Lumberjack Diving Invitational this week (Thursday-Saturday) and the Air Force Diving Invitational (Jan. 30-Feb. 1), another recent addition to the schedule.
The Friendly Confines
The Mavericks will once again host the RMAC Championships, doing so for the sixth straight year in February (Feb. 11-15).
The Mavs also hosted the championship meet for five straight years from 2013-17 after first hosting in 2011.
Including the RMAC Championships and this week’s invitational, the Mavericks are slated to take full advantage of the top-level El Pomar Natatorium, as they will home for six different meets this year.
