This Saturday, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) men’s and women’s swim and dive teams took a day trip to Colorado Springs to compete against the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado School of Mines and CSU-Pueblo. The teams competed in 13 events per gender, 50 and 100-yard swimming events and 1 and 3-meter diving events.
The CMU swim and dive teams competed against the Air Force Academy at home on Oct. 6-7, and this is their second chance this season to race against this upper-division team.
“Yes, they have a good team this season and it’s fun to race them,” swimmer Torsten Rau said regarding Air Force.
“The Air Force is gonna probably beat us, but Mines is […] not very much competition for us,” swimmer Eric Berg said prior to the meet.
In the end, Air Force’s women beat the Mavericks with a score of 152-89, and the men with a score of 150-91, but that score is much closer than that of two weeks ago at the Intermountain Shootout on CMU’s campus.
CMU’s women came out on top against CSU-Pueblo 201-37, and against Colorado Mines with a score of 191-46, and the Maverick men scored a 184-56 win over Colorado Mines. Sierra Forbord in the 200-yard freestyle and Danielle Jefferies in the 100 breaststroke led the women to victory. Forbord’s time was 1:55.73, and Jefferies recorded a time of 1:07.60.
In men’s swimming, Sam Bryant won the 500 freestyle in 4:54.16, while the 200 free relay victory was claimed by Morgan Bean, Chris Radomski, Cody Klaiber and Saif Ezzat Sayed in 1:26.34.
CMU scored 14 second-place finishes behind the Air Force Academy and several more third-place finishes. Maddie McClain (10:57.17) and Isabelle Hanson (11:07.58) placed second and third in the women’s 100 free. Maddie Pressler scored a third-place finish in the 200 free with 1:59.41, while Kennedy Bright placed second in the 200 IM with 2:12.40.
In men’s, the Mavericks finished with eight runner-up scores, including Rau in the 1000 free in 10:15.68 and Berg in the 100 backstroke in 54.02. Sky Hirsch finished second in the 50 free (21.71) as well as the 100 free (48.10), while Bryant placed second in the 200 IM (1:59.13) and Bean was the runner-up in the 100 butterfly (51.51).
CMU will have the chance to compete against the Mines Orediggers again at the A3 Invitational which the Mavericks will host on Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, and at home on Jan. 4-5, and again at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championships in February.
