by Matt Kennedy
It was a long yet very exciting weekend for the Colorado Mesa Swimming team. Both the men’s and the women’s team competed in the A3 Performance CMU Invite at the El Pomar Natatorium.
Several teams competed over the weekend, in which consisted of; Colorado Mesa, Western State, Brigham Young University, Wyoming University, the Colorado School of Mines, Adams State and Dixie State. Colorado Mesa finished in first out of all the teams in the pool.
The women capitalized on their momentum from an already successful season as they swam their hearts out against the competing school when they won the majority of the events on all three days.
The women’s 200 and 400 relay team dominated the entire weekend as they won both of their events. They finished first in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:34.98 and they also succeeded in the 400 free relay with a 3:26.90.
Multiple girls made NCAA “B” cut times over the weekend.
Mary Saiz made her time when she anchored in the 400 free relay, and Marissa Bradley made her cut in the 100 free when she came in third
Miranda Reetz made her cut in the 200 Breast when she finished with a time of 2:21.11.
Reetz also took home first place honors when she finished first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.65 as she barely managed to beat her teammate, Sam White.
The men did their part as well in an exciting weekend of competition when the 400 free relay team out touched the rest of the field with a convincing first place time of 3:05.00. This team consisted of Noah Beaver, Chris Radomski, Morgan Bean and Josh Bedford.
Bedford came in second in the 200 breast with a time of 2:07.85 and fellow teammates, Ryan Gifford and Logan Wagner, were right behind him finishing in third and fifth.
This was a good win for the men’s team as they got grow the momentum they gained after being Mines but also gain some revenge from their early-season loss in the dual meet against the University of Wyoming.
The Colorado Mesa Diving team also competed this weekend and they demolished the competition over the weekend when Cassie Blakeman won the women’s three-meter springboard with a school-record score of 459.95 and Sage D’Ambrosia won the one-meter with a school record of his own and a NCAA qualifying score of 323.90
Other divers performed well, Brittany Dixon finished third on the one-meter with a score of 229.10 and her teammates, Kelsey Vreeman and Cassie Blakeman, followed up on the same event placing fourth and fifth.
The Mavericks performed excellent all around during the course of an exhausting weekend an coach Geoff Hanson is very pleased when talking about multiple of his swimmers qualifying for the NCAA championship, “ …at this point of the season it is a great step toward what we want to accomplish in February and March.”
Coach Hanson goes on to say how proud he is of his team and how hard they have been working all season at times like five in the morning till this past week when the team was on taper.
There are still two months till conference championships on February so the season is just getting started for the Mavericks as they host Western State in their next home meet.
Colorado Mesa earned six NCAA “B” cuts over the weekend and won eight swimming events to match it.
