Maverick divers set for last pre-championship tune-up at NAU

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University diving squad will head to Flagstaff, Arizona for one last pre-championship tune-up because the Mavs will compete on this week’s Lumberjack Diving Invitational at Northern Arizona University’s Wall Aquatic Center.
 
The meet will start at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings though the Mavs are solely slated to compete within the springboard occasions.  Only platform diving will likely be contested on Saturday.
 
Live scoring will likely be accessible on DiveMeets.com and a full recap will likely be posted on www.cmumavericks.com every night.
 
Meet Schedule/Format
 
On Thursday, the boys’s divers will compete on the 3-meter springboard whereas the ladies contest the 1-meter.  All divers will carry out six dives within the preliminary spherical with the highest 18 advancing to the ultimate held later that day.  Scores from the preliminary spherical will carry over into the finals.
 
On Friday, the divers will swap boards with the boys contesting the 1-meter whereas the ladies will go on the 3-meter.
 
A separate group diving occasion can even be contested on Thursday, which can function three divers becoming a member of forces to finish six whole dives, two of which will likely be on the 1-meter, two on the 3-meter and two from the platform.
 
Who’s Competing
 
Ten Mavericks (4 males, 6 ladies) are entered as of Wednesday morning on each the 1 and 3-meter boards.
 
That record contains Giani Benoit, Ryan Campbell, Aiden Coon and Ty Mitton on the boys’s facet.  Talia Datilio, Juli Holt, Jenna Hurley, Emma Lence, Mimi Licht and Kenya Meyer will signify the Maverick ladies.
 
The competitors
 
The Mavs are the one NCAA Division II group competing within the meet.  Divers from seven different NCAA Division I colleges are additionally entered though solely two (Arizona, UNLV) have males’s diving.  The different 5 Idaho, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona and San Diego State solely have ladies’s divers.
 
A complete of 48 divers are entered in at the least one occasion with 35 ladies and 12 males entered within the 1-meter disciplines.  Thirty-four ladies and 11 males are slated to go within the 3-meter occasions.
 
RMAC Awards Haul
 
Five totally different Maverick divers have mixed to win all ten of the RMAC Diver of the Week awards that CMU has been eligible to win this season.
 
The Maverick males have received all six awards introduced this season with Jax Juarros successful three honors (Oct. 9, Nov. 6, Nov. 25).  David Roethlisberger has received two (Oct. 30, Jan. 22) whereas Ryan Campbell claimed the Dec. 18 honor.  Campbell was additionally nominated for this week’s award, which will likely be introduced on Thursday.
 
Kenya Meyer has received three awards (Oct. 9, Nov. 6, Nov. 25) whereas Jenna Hurley claimed final week’s honor on Jan. 22 and has been nominated for this week’s award.

Western Colorado’s Alexandra Willis is the one different diver to have received the ladies’s award doing so on Nov. 13 after every week the Mavs didn’t compete in.
 
The awards are introduced weekly, however solely when greater than half of the RMAC’s 9 ladies’s or six males’s swimming and diving packages competed for the reason that earlier awards.  Additionally, not the entire RMAC packages have divers.

New Diving Rankings
 
This season, the US Professional Diving Coaches Association (US PDCA) has unveiled a brand new PDCA “Top 25”, a model new rating devoted to celebrating and recognizing one of the best in NCAA diving. “For too long, diving has been an afterthought in swimming-centric rankings, where the success of a diving program is often lost in the overall team score.  The PDCA Top 25 changes that, providing a comprehensive and accurate measure of excellence for both individual divers and diving programs across the nation,” the PDCA mentioned the revealing earlier this month.
 
The group up to date its rankings on Dec. 22 after the mid-season invite portion of the season.
The Maverick males at the moment are ranked second with 30.7 factors, up one spot from the inaugural November version of the ballot.  The CMU ladies are tied for second with 28.3 factors whereas the Mavs additionally sit second within the composite ballot with 29.5 factors trailing solely Clarion.
 
Power rankings, powered by information collected from DiveMeets.com had been additionally produced for the groups and for people in every of the 4 whole diving occasions.
 
Kenya Meyer is ranked second within the ladies’s 3-meter particular person energy rankings and is third within the ladies’s 1-meter rankings.  Jenna Hurley is ranked sixth within the 3-meter.
 
On the boys’s facet, the Mavs have 4 of the highest eight within the 3-meter self-discipline with Ryan Campbell sitting second, one spot forward of Jax Juarros.  David Roethlisberger is ranked fifth whereas Ty Mitton sits eighth.  Juarros sits fifth within the 1-meter rankings as nicely.
 
To see the varied polls, rankings and methodology, please click on right here. – https://prodivingcoach.org/d-ii-rankings/
 
Diving Dominance
 
In latest historical past, CMU has swept the RMAC Championship diving occasions yearly since and together with 2018 on the boys’s facet and has swept the ladies’s titles in every of the final 4 years.
 
The Maverick males have had the RMAC Championship Diver of the Meet in eighth straight years whereas Maverick ladies have received eighth of the final 9 honors with teammates sharing co-awards in three straight from 2022-24.
 
A glance again to 2024-25
 
The Mavericks swept the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles for the seventh straight yr earlier than occurring to put up extra robust finishes on the NCAA Division II Championships.  The CMU ladies completed third as a group on the nationwide meet and mixed to win three nationwide titles, together with protection of their title within the 400 medley relay.
 
CMU’s males took ninth place to steer all RMAC groups.
 
The Mavericks competed primarily in opposition to NCAA Division I opposition all through the season seeing solely the CSU Pueblo ladies and the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers in meets through the first half of the season previous to the convention and nationwide meets.
 
At the RMAC Championships, the Mavericks mixed to win 27 gold and 62 whole medals within the 42 occasions.
 
The Mavs then claimed 82 whole all-America honors on the NCAA meet.
 
Award-Winners
 
Fittingly, the Mavericks brough in fairly a haul of post-season awards at each the nationwide and convention degree final yr.
 
Five Maverick athletes acquired the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s main awards on the finish of the 2024-25 season.
 
On the boys’s facet, group captain Andrew Scoggin, who has since graduated, was named because the RMAC Simmer of the Year whereas Ryan Campbell was named because the Men’s Diver of the Year.  Kenya Meyer was named because the RMAC Women’s Diver of the Year.
 
The Mavs additionally swept the RMAC Freshman of the Year awards with Richard Schmiedefeld and Kendyll Wilkinson receiving the boys’s & ladies’s awards.
 
The Mavs additionally introduced in a boatload of educational awards as Meyer and Dejan Urbanek swept the RMAC Academic Athlete of the Year honors whereas main a gaggle of 19 Maverick First Team Academic All-RMAC alternatives.
 
The Mavericks additionally led the nation with the utmost eight potential (4 males, 4 ladies) College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® alternatives.  Meyer, Kiara Borchardt and Ada Qunell
Return in 2025-26 from that record.
 
The Mavs additionally led the nation with 39 CSCAA Scholar All-Americans whereas the Maverick males received the RMAC’s Brechler Award for having the very best group GPA within the convention.
 
All-American List
 
The Mavericks roster or returning all-Americans is kind of prolonged and spectacular.
 
The Mavericks had a program-record 30 totally different people, together with six divers, mix for 82 CSCAA All-America honors eventually yr’s championships.  The Mavericks return 20 of these individuals to this yr’s roster and have 21 whole returning all-Americans on this yr’s roster, together with one who earned honors in 2023.
 
The returning group from 2025 earned a mixed whole of 44 all-America honors final yr, which go to the highest 16 finishers in every occasion on the nationwide championships, final season.  The high eight finishers earn first group honors whereas the ninth via 16^th place finishers are Second Team/Honorable Mention alternatives.
 
Here’s an inventory of CMU’s returning all-Americans together with the variety of honors every acquired in 2025 and the entire quantity of their profession.
 
Women
Kiara Borchardt (3/9)
Talia Datilio (1/1)
Olivia Hansson (5/10)
Taylar Hooton (1/1)
Reagan Horn (1/1)
Antonia Leese (3/3)
Mimi Licht (1/1)
Kenya Meyer (1/1)
Sydnee O’Neil (2/2)
Ada Qunell (4/13)
Hanna Sasivarevic (1/1)
Kendyll Wilkinson (3/3)
Elli Williams (3/7)
 
Men
Ryan Campbell (2/2)
Wyatt Hermanson (0/2)
Marcos Otero (1/2)
David Roethlisberger (2/2)
Luka Samsonov (3/3)
Richard Schmiedefeld (5/5)
Gavyn Tatge (1/1)
Ben Vester (1/1)
 
Preseason Polls
 
Both Maverick groups had been unanimous alternatives to win their eighth straight RMAC crowns in accordance with final week’s Preseason Coaches’ Polls.  The Maverick ladies acquired all eight of the potential first place votes they may obtain to high the ballot with 64 factors forward of Simon Fraser, which had 56 factors and the primary place vote from CMU Coach Mickey Wender.
 
Eight factors had been awarded for first place votes as every of the convention’s 9 coaches had been requested to rank their opposition 1-8 with out voting for their very own squad.
 
The Maverick males picked up all 5 of their potential first place votes to high the ballot with 25 factors forward of Mines, which took second within the ballot with 20 factors whereas receiving Wender’s first place vote.  There are six males’s groups within the convention and coaches had been requested to rank their opposition 1-5.
 
Preseason All-RMAC
 
The RMAC additionally introduced a Preseason All-RMAC group, made up of the highest returning finisher in every particular person occasion from final yr’s RMAC Championships.
 
Nine Maverick ladies mixed for 14 of the 16 potential spots on the group whereas the Maverick males had 4 alternatives.
 
Colorado Mesa turns 100
 
The CMU Century Celebration stands because the cornerstone of Colorado Mesa University’s year-long centennial celebration. This bold initiative unites our neighborhood in honoring a wealthy heritage whereas boldly envisioning the following hundred years of educational excellence.

Led by the Steering Committee and 6 specialised sub-committees, we’re orchestrating a transformative expertise that may resonate via generations. Each committee brings distinctive experience to create an unforgettable commemoration of our previous, current and future.
 
To study extra about Colorado Mesa’s 100-year celebration, go to cmucentury.com.
 
Up Next
 
The Maverick divers will be a part of their swimming counterparts on the RMAC Championships, which the Mavs will host of their El Pomar Natatorium from Feb. 10-14.  Diving occasions will start on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
 
CMU has swept the boys’s and ladies’s group titles in every of the final seven years and will likely be gunning for an eighth straight sweep.