Sports Reporter
The CMU swim team won its Colorado Mesa Invitational at El Pomar Natatorium this weekend, finishing with 2,549.5 points.
“We knew we were going to swim faster than we have been the past month or so,” coach Brian Pearson said. “We’ve done more work in the past 10 weeks than we had the first semester last year.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams came out strong on day one of the invite, placing first over visiting Colorado School of Mines, CU-Boulder, Adams State and Metro State.
After day one, the women’s team had a strong lead with 812.50 points. Colorado Mines finished the day in second place, but trailed 509.5 points behind the Mavericks.
On day one, All-American senior Jaclyn McMillen won the 50 and 200-yard backstroke as well as the 200-yard medley relay with teammates Katie Thompson, Jillian Hayes and Briana Purkapile. Purkapile also won the 100-yard freestyle. Freshman diver Brooke Lera won the three-meter event with 246.15 points and placed second in the one-meter with 227.95 points.
On Sunday, Lera won the 3-meter dive and placed second in the 1-meter. McMillen won the 100-yard backstroke. The Women’s team finished with a total of 1385.5 points for both days.
The Men’s team led the competition after Saturday with 562 points.
Kent Stavrakas won the 50 fly and also the 100 freestyle. All-American diver Brock Martin won both the one and three-meter dive. Alejandro Hernandez won the 200-yard IM and also placed third in the 200-yard backstroke.
Hernandez came back on Sunday to win the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:09.85, a qualifying time for the US Olympic Swim Team Trials. Stavrakas placed first in the 50 freestyle, and Martin won first in the 1 and 3-meter dive.
“We’ve had a couple national qualifiers already,” Pearson said. “Alejandro Hernandez qualified for two events this weekend. Brock Martin had already qualified for diving, and Brooke Lera qualified for diving today.”
The Men’s team finished with a combined total of 1164 points for the weekend.
“We’re about six weeks ahead of where we need to be,” Pearson said. “It takes a load off my mind so we can really focus on nationals and our conference championships.”
The next meet for the Mavericks is in Las Vegas for the top 16 men’s and women’s swimmers.
cncooper@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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