GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado, February 21. HOST Colorado Mesa and California Baptist held onto their leads in the men’s and women’s team standings, respectively, as day three of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships wrapped up Friday evening. The Cal Baptist women won all five events contested, while the Colorado Mesa men scored three individual wins to hold onto a 70-point lead over Cal Baptist.<\/p>\n
Cal Baptist’s Mary Hanson picked up another conference record and NCAA automatic qualifying standard, winning the 100 back in 54.40 to add to her individual victory in the 50 free from Thursday. She now has two NCAA ‘A’ standards at the meet.<\/p>\n
California Baptist Press Release<\/strong><\/p>\n The California Baptist University Lancers are three-fourths of the way through the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships and have continued to post season-best times in each event.<\/p>\n The CBU women touched-first in all five events, including the 800-yard freestyle relay and brought their total score to an even 800 to maintain a solid lead over the women teams.<\/p>\n The Lancer men have tallied 821 points overall to hold their second-place standing and have continued to dominate in the team relays.<\/p>\n Yosita Hapsari started the day off with a 5:02.76 first-touch time in the 500-yard freestyle race, which was a season-best and NCAA Division II \u2018B\u2019 standard time for her. Courtney Chacon followed closely with Hapsari in the tight-swam race to grab second place and boost her time to 5:03.58.<\/p>\n Mary Hanson beat another RMAC, CBU program record, and Colorado Mesa record in the 100 back with a striking 54.40 time, which automatically qualified her for nationals. Kylie Mihld posted a carreer-high in the event, finishing in third and clocking in at 57.74\u2014a \u2018B\u2019 qualifying time.<\/p>\n Alena Rumientceva also broke a RMAC, CBU program, and CMU record in the 100 breaststroke after cruising to a first-place finish in 1:02.81\u2014qualifying in the \u2018B\u2019 category as well.<\/p>\n Kristina Tchernyshev picked up speed in her last 100 of the 200-yard butterfly for a first-touch finish in 2:04.56\u2014just barely missing the RMAC and CMU record. Kyndal Terwilliger gave the Lancers a one-two finish with her second-place, \u2018B\u2019 standard time of 2:07.13.<\/p>\n The women closed out the day with a considerable first-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay led by Hapsari, Hanson, Anna Megli, and Terwilliger with a final time of 7:38.13. The \u2018B\u2019 relay-team also cruised to first in their preliminary-round race in 7:46.95, which Chacon, Hailey Golden, Ashley Weedman, and Mihld contributed to.<\/p>\n The men\u2019s highlight was Kendall Rummell\u2019s second-place and silver medal finish on the 1-meter diving platform after scoring 4:18.95 points. Rummell was up against Colorado Mesa\u2019s Brock Martin who placed fourth on the 1-meter board last year at nationals. Rummell scored a high of 48 on his forward one-and-a-half pike dive with a degree of difficulty of 2.4.<\/p>\n Chris Carlberg was just two points shy of the bronze medal and scored 414.60 through the 11-dive event. Andrew Rotundo\u2014after a phenomenal third-place finish on the 3-meter platform Wednesday\u2014scored a 347.05 to close out his RMAC Championship events.<\/p>\n Elijah Barrows broke the CBU program record in the 500 free in the start of the men\u2019s final events with his season-best time of 4:30.02–.05 seconds behind Colorado Mesa\u2019s Tyler Kaslik. Derek Wedel posted his season-best time in the tight-race throughout finishing in fourth place just .28 behind another Colorado Mesa swimmer, Jarren Brinton. Mitchell Spezzaferri grabbed fifth place in the event for a \u2018B\u2019 qualifying and season-best time of 4:35.77. Austin Aberle also posted a \u2018B\u2019 standard with his 4:37.29 time.<\/p>\n Josh Hanson touched-first in the 200 fly, while Robert Nichols pushed in a close race throughout for a 1:51.56 time to finish just .11 behind third place.<\/p>\n Nichols led the Lancer men in the 100 backstroke in another hard-fought race for him, finishing in 49.88\u2014again just .18 behind first-place but a \u2018B\u2019 standard time. Nolan Brown grabbed third in the event clocking in at 50.20 and contributed valid points for the team\u2019s scoring.<\/p>\n Chaffin Blake posted a season-high time of 56.31 in the 100 breaststroke and finished second overall. Bryce Arata came in a close fourth with his 56.89 official time.<\/p>\n The Lancer men continued to dominate as a team in both the \u2018A\u2019 and \u2018B\u2019 800-freestyle relays. The final event of the night, and one of the most exciting events so far, was relay event where David Ring, Brown, Hanson, and Nichols swam the hardest they could to finish in 6:40.48\u2014.22 in front of Colorado School of Mines for a gold-medal finish. With Hanson pushing the lead in his second 100-yards of the third leg of the relay, and Nichols\u2014after competing well all day\u2014holding on to the incredibly tight lead to finish the race on top, the Lancer men stuck it out for the gold.<\/p>\n In the preliminary round \u2018B\u2019 relay, Spezzaferri, Aberle, Josh Collison, and Wedel cruised to a first-place finish and added a considerable amount to the Lancer\u2019s total scoring.<\/p>\n California Baptist University closes out its first-ever RMAC Championship Saturday with the 1650 freestyle, 100 free, 200 back, 200 breast, women\u2019s 3-meter dive, and 400 freestyle relay.<\/p>\n The conference will recognize the seniors of each team prior to the start of the final events, and will give the final awards directly after the completion of the last event.<\/p>\n