Not a bad first day for the Colorado Mesa University swim and diving team on Wednesday at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Championships. Four Mavericks took home RMAC titles as both the men’s and women’s teams stand in first after Day One.
Three freshmen were able to take home gold. Logan Ellis dominated the 1,000-yard freestyle as the Albuquerque native took home first with a time of 9:26.64. The CMU school record on the 200 IM was broken by Arthur Cury when he touched the wall in 1:48.39. To top out the trio, Zander Minano won the 50-free in a rapid 20 seconds flat which is also a new school record.
The drama for the day came on the boards. Ammar Hassan, who is the defending RMAC Champion in the 3-meter and won the NCAA Div. II Championships last year in the same event was dethroned by fellow Maverick, Noah Macomber. After setting a new RMAC record with a score of 599.90 points, Macomber was awarded the RMAC Championship for the 3-meter event.
Macomber qualified for the National Championships with his performance on Wednesday after he came in second last year behind Hassan the year before.
The men lead the field of four teams after day one with 317.5 points while the women lead a more crowded field of nine teams with 199.5 points. The women are looking for their first RMAC title in program history.
Two Mavericks finished in the top three in the women’s 1,000 free. Isabelle Hasson came in second with a time 10:21.88 which is enough to get her an NCAA “B” cut time. Robyn Naze came just behind Hasson in third with a time of 10:25.14.
The women had a total of six “B” cut times on Wednesday, including four in the evening events.
Day two will begin bright and early with events like 400 IM, 100 Fly and the 200 Free all having their prelims in the morning sessions.