2024 CMU Invitational
- November 20-23, 2024
- Grand Junction, Colo.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Live Results
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Results (PDF)
Courtesy: CMU Athletics
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick sprinters stole the show as they took down both pool and meet records in four events, including two of the oldest on the El Pomar Natatorium record board on Thursday evening during the TYR/CMU Invitational. The Mavs also broke three more school records in the sprints and added another in the 500-yard freestyle relay while winning six of the eight events contested on the second of four days of the meet, continuing to re-write the record books in what seems like real time.
The Mavs had also set 14 new pool, meet and school records on Wednesday night, and added 32 more NCAA Division II Championship qualifying times throughout Thursday’s s action after racking up 30 on Wednesday in the first evening session.
In the process, the Maverick men claimed three first place and three second place finishes in the four Thursday events increasing their team scoring lead to 241 points over NCAA Division I Wyoming through seven of the meet’s 19 events. The Mavericks have now scored 564 ½ while the Cowboys have tallied 324 ½, moving past the Colorado School of Mines (238) into second place. A partial Utah Ute squad is fourth with 110.
The Maverick women also claimed three wins in four events on Thursday, increasing their team scoring total to 422 points, which is good for a 30 ½ point lead over Wyoming, which surged to 391 ½ after Thursday’s action. Northern Arizona is in third with 249 points while the Colorado School of Mines slipped two spots to fourth with 201. Utah is fifth with 112.
The biggest highlights of the day came in the 50-yard freestyle events and the 200-yard medley relays.
2024 Paris Olympian Harry Stacey, a Maverick freshman, brought the biggest “Wow” moment of the day in the last preliminary heat of the morning, recording a 50 free time of 19.49 seconds to smash the former Maverick and meet record of 19.89, set by 6-time NCAA Division II National Champion Ben Sampson, by four tenths of a second. Stacey, who went on to win the evening final in 19.67 seconds, also took down a 11-year old El Pomar Natatorium record of 19.55 seconds, which had been held by Grand Canyon’s Michael Branning since the 2013 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships.
Fellow Maverick freshman Richard Schmiedefeld also became just the third Maverick to ever go under 20 seconds, posting a second place time of 19.98 seconds in the evening session as the Mavs swept the top four places, all with NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying times.
Sophomore Jameson McEnaney took third at 20.19 while Andrew Scoggin set a personal-best of 20.27 seconds in the morning before taking fourth in the final, touching in 20.31 seconds.
Minutes earlier, the Maverick women were just as strong in the 50 free as 5-event national champion Agata Naskret broke her own Maverick record while setting the pool and meet records with a time of 22.75 seconds, five one-hundredths under her former Maverick standard and six better than the 2015 pool record of 22.81, set by Cal Baptist’s Mary Hanson at the 2015 RMAC Championships.
Naskret also out-touched Wyoming’s Tara Joyce, who had set a meet record time of 22.92 in the morning prelims before taking second in 23.03 seconds in the evening. The Cowgirls did have six of the eight finalists in the event although Maverick junior Elli Williams touched in 23.30 seconds to finish fourth after freshman Reagan Horn (23.66) and junior Ada Qunell (23.70) took first and second in the “B” final while joining Naskret and Williams in surpassing the NCAA Championship “B” standard.
The super sprinting continued in the 200 free relays as Naskret, Williams, Horn and Qunell combined for a meet and pool record smashing time of 1:31.62, outdueling the Cowgirls, who also went well under the former records in 1:31.81. Qunell turned in a 22.61-second anchor split to give the Mavs the win after Wyoming led by 0.27 seconds going into the final 50.
Maverick freshman Kendyll Wilkinson, who set the CMU 200 Free record on Wednesday, also turned in a NCAA “B” cut time of 23.76 seconds as the lead-off on the Mavs’ second relay team that finished in a solid 1:34.89.
McEnaney, Stacey, Schmiedefeld and Scoggin then capped the night with a pool, meet and school record trifecta time of 1:19.09 in the men’s relay as the Mavericks again edged Wyoming by 0.18 seconds.
Although the sprinting punctuated the night, the Mavericks got out to a quick start in the distance event of the night as Olivia Hansson set a NCAA Automatic Qualifying time of 4:53.45 (4:48.45-altitude adjusted) in the 500 Free, taking third place behind pool and meet record holder Casey Craffey of Northern Arizona and Macey Hansen of Wyoming. Craffey set a NCAA Division I provisional qualifying time of 4:50.84 to win the race.
Meanwhile, five other Mavericks in Katerina Matoskova, Hanna Sasivarevic, Haven Hinkle, Sydnee O’Neil and Gabriella Stanton also set NCAA “B” cut times in the event. Sasiverevic also moved into the No. 7 spot of program history with her mark of 5:03.64 (4:58.64-converted) while Hinkle moved up a spot to ninth with her effort of 5:04.20 (4:59.20-converted).
The Maverick men then went 1-2-3 in the 500 Free as freshman Braden Felio set a personal-best and NCAA “B” cut time of 4:28.60 (4:23.60-converted) to claim his second straight meet win in the discipline while moving all the way to third in program history. Junior Gavyn Tatge also had a lifetime best of 4:29.13 (4:24.13-converted) to finish second after leading much of the race. He now stands fifth in program history.
Wednesday night 1000 Free meet-record setter Jacob Troescher was third in 4:30.44 after turning in a career-best of 4:30.10 (4:25.10-converted) in the morning.
Gavin Anderson and Alex Cooper also joined the first three finishers with NCAA Division II “B” cut marks to take sixth and eighth place. Anderson also had a personal-bet of 4:32.32 (4:27.32-converted) in the morning to rank tenth in CMU history.
The Mavs also shined in the 200 individual medleys which preceded the 50 free.
Sophia Bains won the women’s event in 2:01.97 (2:00.77-converted) and moved into third place on the Mavs’ all-time charts behind only Benedict Nagy and Lily Borgenheimer, who are both former national champions. Bains was able to out-touch Wyoming’s Kayla Cunningham by five one-hundredths of a second while Kate Speerschneider took seventh in 2:06.13 (2:04.93-converted) to move into the No. 8 spot of Maverick lore while joining Bains as a NCAA “B” cut qualifier.
Meanwhile, the Maverick men had eight such qualifiers as Marcos Otero finished second in 1:49.78 after setting a preliminary round mark of 1:48.90 (1:47.70) in the morning to move into the No. 3 spot of CMU history. Mauricio Posadas, Jason McMechan, Lucas Viana, Luka Samsonov and Max Ayres also swam well as the Mavs took six of the top seven spots in the event.
Freshman Deklan Heinzen also won the consolation final and joined Ben Vester, who turned in a No. 7 CMU ranking time of 1:49.64 (1:48.44-converted) in a time trial as other NCAA “B” qualifiers.
Kuba Kiszczak also had a NCAA “B” cut time of 20.28 seconds to win a 5-man 50 free time trial at the end of the night.
Friday’s portion of the meet will begin at 10 a.m. with preliminary heats in five different events. The finals in those events plus 400 medley relay will then get underway at 5 p.m.
