Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference

GENEVA, Ohio – Five Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference swimming and diving programs earned team points this past week at the 2024 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships. The Colorado Mesa women secured national runners-up, the highest women’s team finish for an RMAC institution. They scored a program record 461.5 points and finished 25.5 points behind the defending national champions, Nova Southeastern.

The Maverick women had seven national champions, including three winning relays, to pace them to their record finish. Benedict Nagy won the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medley races, while Agata Naskret took gold in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke events. Lauren White added an individual podium finish for the Mavs as she took third in the 100-yard backstroke.

RMAC newcomer Simon Fraser had a successful meet, scoring 153.5 points for an eighth-place women’s team finish, while the Red Leafs men’s squad finished in the top 25. The 2024 RMAC Women’s Swimmer of the Meet Tori Mekelensek scored three top-three finishes over the week, taking second in the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle and third in the 1,650-yard freestyle.

Colorado School of Mines’ Jordan Tierney added a bronze medal finish in the 100-yard breaststroke to her RMAC Champion title in that event.

On the men’s side, Colorado Mesa matched their 2023 fifth place team finish with another fifth-place, although they put up more points in Ohio this past week (279 points). Ben Sampson led the way, winning the national championship in all four of his individual events. He won each day of the meet and set two new meet and Division II records. His 3:40.22 in the 400-yard individual medley and the 1:40.34 he swam in the 200-yard backstroke are now the times to beat in those events.

Oklahoma Christian’s JT Amrein nabbed the fifth national championship swim by an RMAC male swimmer, taking home the 200-yard breaststroke title with his time of 1:54.66. He beat his RMAC champion winning time by nearly three seconds to be the holder of both gold medals.

All five men’s programs that competed at the national championship meet scored points, as Oklahoma Christian, Simon Fraser and University of Texas Permian Basin finished among the top 30 teams. Colorado School of Mines gained team points after Ronan Lauinger’s 14^th place in the 500-yard freestyle, 15^th place in the 400-yard individual medley and Charles Burroughs’s 16^th place in the 200-yard butterfly.

Three other women’s programs gained points as Simon Fraser finished 8^th with 153.5 points, while Oklahoma Christian and Colorado School of Mines finished inside the top-25 teams at the meet.

In total, 46 swims and one dive entry by RMAC women earned All-American honors, while 37 men’s swims and four men’s diving entries garnered All-American status. The top 16 finishers in each event qualify for All-America status, while the top eight were recognized on the podium.