This weekend, the Colorado Mesa University men’s and women’s swim and dive teams geared up for the first meet of the season, a competition against three Division I schools: the Air Force Academy, Colorado State University, and Brigham Young University. This meet was a test of sorts to determine where the teams stand in terms of promise for the coming season.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how the upperclassmen show leadership and how newcomers compete under these circumstances,” Head swimming and diving coach Geoff Hanson said. “If we plan on being one of the best swimming and diving teams in Division II at the end of the season, we need to put ourselves up against strong competition all year.”
Friday and Saturday were full days for the team members, with three hours of competitions on Friday starting at 5 p.m., and over two and a half hours on Saturday starting at 10:30 a.m. On both days, the swim teams competed in freestyle, relays, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly. Freshman Torsten Rau said he was looking forward to the relays, distance swimming and the 500 freestyle.
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The men’s and women’s dive teams did six dives on both the 1 meter and 3-meter boards.
“I am hoping for our athletes to gain the experience competing against the level of divers as well as our freshmen to see what college diving is all about,” Diving coach Logan Pearsall said. “[…] My motto this year is to not rush the progress, but instill confidence through successful learning.”
In diving, senior Sage D’Ambrosia earned a national championship spot with a 4th place finish of 289.65 points on the men’s 1-meter board. Sophomore Kelsey Vreeman won the women’s 3-meter, and also the 18-diver event with 243.90 points. She was named Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Diver of the Year last year after a 6th place national championship.
In swimming, top finishers in the men’s and women’s 200 butterfly were Danielle Jefferies and Chris Radomski. Torsten Rau and Maddie McClain were top finishers in the 500 freestyle.
In the 200 IM, Sam Bryant and Danielle Jefferies, and in the 100 freestyle, Sierra Forbord and Noah Beaver. Maddie Pressler and Eric Berg finished on top in the 200 backstroke, and Sam White and Sam Bryant were top finishers in the 200 breaststroke.
The Mavericks trailed closely behind the Air Force in men’s 145-40 and in women’s 128.5-59.5, BYU 114-68 in men’s and 128-60 in women’s, and Colorado State 133-55 in men’s.