PREVIEW: Orediggers Able to Dive, Race at DU

By: Sam Boender

M Swimming & Diving: #20 Mines at Denver – Denver, Colo. – Friday, 1 p.m. [Watch]

W Swimming: #12 Mines at Denver – Denver, Colo. – Friday, 3 p.m. [Watch]

BACK IN ACTION

The Colorado School of Mines males’s and girls’s swimming & diving groups have been off from competitors for greater than 40 days. That hiatus ends Friday when the Orediggers return to the pool and ring within the new yr with a twin on the University of Denver. Diving begins at 1 p.m. with racing for the women and men at 3 p.m. Friday marks the primary of three competitions main as much as the RMAC Swimming & Diving Championships in February. Mines will look to knock of the rust at DU and begin making ready for a postseason push.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Fans can watch Friday’s motion without cost on DU’s YouTube page which can also be linked above. Live stats might be tracked with a subscription to the MeetCell app.
 
STANDARD DUAL
Mines and Denver are the one two applications competing on Friday making it a regular dual-meet format in regard to diving, racing and scoring. Diving will take up the primary two hours of motion after a 1 p.m. begin. Swimming begins at 3 p.m. with the race order listed under.
 
RACE ORDER
According to the University of Denver’s athletics homepage, Friday’s swimming slate features a complete of 11 occasions with 9 particular person races bracketed by a pair of relays. The tentative order of occasions is under.
– 200-medley relay
– 1000-free
– 200-free
-50-free
– 200-IM
– 200-fly
– 100-free
– 200-back
– 500-free
– 200-breast
– 400-freestyle relay
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Orediggers’ final look within the competitors was the TYR/CMU Invitational and a diving twin in Grand Junction, Colo., in November. The invite lasted 4 days with three periods of motion every day. Saturday additionally introduced a standalone diving twin with the Mavericks that includes Mines’ Bruno Albertoni. Mines’ males completed second within the invite with 988 factors, and the Oredigger ladies have been third because of 780 factors. However, the scores weren’t the main focus, however a bevy of NCAA-qualifying instances and quite a few program information dictated success for Mines. Along the best way, Valdislav Kazakin gained the boys’s 500-free, and 1650-free, Anna Bream gained the ladies’s 400-IM, and Mikaela Khan gained the ladies’s 200-fly in a subject that includes NCAA Division I Northern Arizona’s ladies and each of Colorado Mesa’s nationally ranked squads.
 
REWRITING RECORDS
As acknowledged above, the TYR/CMU Invitational produced a number of program information and a serious overhaul of the Oredigger document books. On the ladies’s aspect, Cameryn Schmidt broke the 50-free document, Anna Bream broke the 400-IM document, and 4 completely different relay information went down. Mary Flikkema, Schmidt, Kaya Flaherty, and Jordan Tierney teamed up within the 200-medley relay. It was Flaherty, Tierney, Schmidt, and Jennifer Pierson within the 200-freestyle relay. The 400-freestyle quartet was made up of Tierney, Ava LaBrose, Flaherty, and Pierson. LaBrose, Pierson, Michelle Murphy, and Bream rounded issues out within the distance relay. On the boys’s aspect, Charlie Krone went off and captured Mines’ 200-free and 100-fly information. Jakson Winn struck twice within the 50-back and 100-back. The males had three relay information as properly. Winn, Joe Hutchinson, Krone, and Dan Berke did the work on the 400-medley relay. Brenden Cook, Winn, Berke, and Jack Fulham toppled the 200-freestyle relay mark. Krone, Cook, Cameron MacMillan, and Vladislav Kazkin have been the record-breaking foursome on the 800-freestyle relay.
 
THAT’S NOT ALL
Prior to the mid-season invite, the Orediggers have been already slaying information. Vladislav Kazakin introduced down the Mines Natatorium document within the 500-free on opening weekend. The return of Oredigger diving noticed Bruno Albertoni break this system’s finest rating within the 1-meter, six-dive occasion in his very first collegiate motion. Ava LaBrose offered the ladies a facility document within the 200-free as properly – a mark beforehand held by Oredigger star Mia Wood.
 
BUTTERFLY EFFECT
Plenty of program information damaged on the TYR/CMU Invitational have been reset a number of instances between prelims, finals, and relay leadoffs. However, probably the most thrilling trade was arguably the ladies’s quickest mark within the 200-fly. On the ultimate day in Grand Junction, Colo., this system document within the 200-fly exchanged fingers 4 instances. Mikaela Khan began by breaking her personal document in prelims of the 200-fly. One prelim warmth later, Kaya Flaherty topped Khan’s time. Then, through the night “B” finals, Savannah Karas put her title on the high of the record. In the top, Khan reclaimed her document within the 200-fly by profitable all the occasion in 2:02.28 which additionally fell underneath the NCAA-qualifying normal. Khan’s earlier collegiate finest within the occasion, with out adjustment for altitude, was 2:05.87 towards Colorado College.
 
#1 IN THE NATION
As of Dec. 31, 2025, Anna Bream’s altitude-adjusted 4:18.23 within the 400-IM ranks #1 in all of NCAA Division II this season. She produced the mark whereas racing to gold on the TYR/CMU Invitational in November. Additionally, Bream is #5 in DII within the 200-IM and #9 within the 200-breast. While Bream is the Oredigger ranked #1 in any occasion, she’s not the one one ranked top-10 within the nation thus far this season. Julie Gill is #10 within the 1000-free, Mary Flikkema is #10 within the 50-back, Jordan Tierney sits #5 within the 100-breast, Mikaela Khan ranks #6 within the 200-fly, and the ladies’s 800-freestyle relay from the TYR/CMU Invitational is #6 in DII. On the boys’s aspect, Vladislav Kazakin leads the best way, sitting #5 within the 1000-free, #6 within the 1650-free, and #8 within the 500-free.
 
NATIONALLY RANKED

The Colorado School of Mines males’s and girls’s swimming & diving groups each made vital jumps within the December version of the College Swimming and Diving Coaches’ Association of America’s (CSCAA) Division II Top 25 Dual Meet Rankings. The Oredigger males went from receiving votes to #20 within the nation. Mines’ ladies leapt from #18 to #12. Both enhancements come after an especially profitable November journey to the TYR/CMU Invitational in Grand Junction, Colo, the place each groups overhauled their respective program document books. The polls are voted on by a committee consisting of Division II coaches and are supposed to mirror the highest twin meet groups in all of NCAA Division II. The nationwide rankings usually are not meant to foretell the highest finishers in a championship meet format. Drury’s males and Tampa’s ladies every checked in at #1 within the nation. Colorado Mesa was the one different RMAC squad within the males’s ballot, slotting at #6. Fellow RMAC squads within the ladies’s rankings included #3 Colorado Mesa and #16 Simon Fraser with Oklahoma Christian receiving votes.
 
DIVING RETURNS
Earlier this fall, Mines introduced the return of males’s and girls’s NCAA Division II diving beginning this season. Katherine Andrie will coach and look to regrow this system within the coming years. The historical past of Mines diving contains 12 all-Americans, a person nationwide champion, one of many first ladies in Mines Athletics, and a number of members of the Harry D. Campbell Oredigger Hall of Fame. Just a few of these corridor of fame members embody NCAA Division II National Champion Rick Williamson, former head coach Bob McCandless, the 1983 Women’s Swimming & Diving group, and the Men’s Swimming & Diving groups from 1981-84. That wealthy historical past threads completely with the present objectives of this system and the division.
 
HOW DIVING WORKS
In full disclosure, the writer has solely lately discovered the fundamentals of aggressive diving. Fans ought to notice there are quite a few nuances past what’s laid out under. In school diving, there are two fundamental forms of diving competitions – six dive competitions and 11 dive competitions. In these occasions, divers both carry out six dives or 11 dives to gather a complete rating decided by the judges. The very fundamental forms of dives embody ahead, again, reverse, inward, and twisting. Those phrases check with how the competitor begins their dive. After figuring out how the dive begins, there are additionally somersaults, or rotations. Along with somersaults and rotations, there may be the place. The place may very well be straight, pike, tuck, or free. The later usually contains a number of positions. All of these issues are introduced earlier than the dive by a sequence of numbers together with a letter to make clear straight, pike, tuck, or free. In six dive competitions, all dives are optionally available and might be picked by the competitor. In 11 dive codecs, there are six optionally available dives and 5 voluntary, or designated, dives  Also, all the pieces talked about above can occur on a one meter board or a 3 meter board. Mines doesn’t have platform diving. And with that, the writer has exhausted his understanding of diving. Good luck.
 
STAFF UPDATES
Mines Head Coach Claire McDaniel bolstered her swimming & diving workers through the offseason. The newcomers embody Katherine Andrie, Brad Shannon, and Graham Walker. Andrie, as beforehand launched, will function the boys’s and girls’s diving coach. Shannon arrives at Colorado School of Mines as McDaniel’s high assistant. Walker competed as a student-athlete for McDaniel on the University of Denver and has since gained teaching expertise across the metropolitan space. The trio joins veteran Oredigger assistants Andy Foley and Colin Fenster.
 
MEET KATHERINE ANDRIE

As referenced above, Coach Andrie will function the lead girl for the Mines diving groups. She joins the workers with each a formidable résumé as a diving coach, and a private familiarity with Colorado School of Mines. Two of her youngsters, Marty and Carlie, attended Mines and competed for the Orediggers. Marty was a nine-time all-American in cross nation and monitor & subject and a member of the 2015 Men’s Cross Country group which gained the NCAA Division II Championship. That group was inducted into the Harry D. Campbell Oredigger Hall of Fame in 2023. Carlie competed in triathlon and for the membership water polo group throughout her time at Mines. On deck, Coach Andrie boasts a number of many years of highschool and membership teaching expertise with stops at quite a few excessive colleges within the Denver space together with Valor Christian, Littleton, Douglas County, Smoky Hill, and extra. She was named East Metro Diving Coach of the Year in 2011 and CHSAA 4A Dive Coach of the Year in 2018.
 
MEET BRAD SHANNON
Shannon arrived in Golden, Colo., over the summer time following two years as the top man at William Peace University in North Carolina. He and his workers earned 2024-25 Independent South Swimming Conference Men’s Swimming Coaching Staff of the Year after guiding WPU’s males to second-place end on the convention meet whereas the ladies took group bronze. The Pacer’s 2023-24 squads mixed for six gold medals on the ISSC meet and broke 9 program information. Prior to William Peace, Shannon was an assistant on the University of Rochester from 2019-23. Additional skilled expertise contains work as a counselor at each the University of Florida and N.C. State swim camps. Collegiately, Shannon competed at Ohio State University and earned Ohio State and Big Ten Scholar Athlete distinction all 4 years. He was a USA Swimming Olympic Trial Qualifier in 2016 as properly. He owns a bachelor’s diploma in worldwide research with a specialization in safety and intelligence from OSU. Shannon earned his grasp’s diploma from Concordia Chicago in utilized train science. Fans can learn extra about Shannon’s accomplishments in his on-line bio.
 
MEET GRAHAM WALKER
Walker joins the Oredigger workers following an elite beginner and collegiate swimming profession. Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Walker represented Team Kenya at each the All-Africa Games and the Commonwealth Games. He went on to compete for the University of Denver underneath coach McDaniel. His high-level efficiency within the pool additionally led to serving as group captain his ultimate two years with the Pioneers. Walker’s coach profession began whereas he was nonetheless in school, instructing swimming classes, and continued after commencement. He finally accepted a proper teaching position with the University of Denver Hilltoppers Swim Club in 2022. Since then, Walker coached a number of state champions and program document holders. He returned to DU as an assistant coach in 2024 and helped oversee convention titles and continued aggressive success. Fans may also discover his bio on-line.
 
AT THE HELM
Colorado School of Mines Swimming Head Coach Claire McDaniel is in her seventh season on the helm for the Oredigger women and men. McDaniel gained her fourth RMAC Coach of the Year on the boys’s aspect after guiding the Orediggers to group silver on the 2024-25 RMAC Swimming & Diving Championships. She additionally owns three RMAC Coach of the Year awards on the ladies’s aspect. Through six seasons, McDaniel has coached 5 RMAC Swimmers of the Year, 4 RMAC Freshmen of the Year, and 27 all-American performances together with 23 particular person occasions and 4 relays.
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers host their ultimate twin of the season on Saturday, Jan. 10, with the boys taking over Air Force and the ladies dealing with Western Colorado. A full preview and dwell protection will probably be accessible the day earlier than at www.minesathletics.com.
 
Fans can sustain with Mines swimming on “X” (previously Twitter), Facebook and Instagram at @MinesSwimming. They may also sustain with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all yr lengthy on Facebook, “X” and Instagram utilizing the deal with @MinesAthletics.