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Day 1 Results

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Meghan Slowey and Jorie Selig captured event titles to highlight a successful first night for Colorado School of Mines at the 2021 RMAC Swimming & Diving Championships.

Slowey had a comeback finish to win the 1,000-free, and Selig became the RMAC's fastest woman with a 50-freestyle victory to lead the Orediggers. Through nine events, the Mines men are second with 165 points behind Colorado Mesa's pace of 217, and the women are also second with 99 points behind CMU with 230.5. 

The Orediggers also had three program records set on Wednesday with both 200-free relays and the men's 200-medley relay etching their names in the record book. 

Day two of the championships starts at 9 a.m. Thursday with the women's prelims, followed by the men at noon.

200-FREE RELAY
The women's 200-free relay kicked off Wednesday finals with the Orediggers' first program record of the meet, capturing the bronze medal in 1:35.45 out of what was a very competitive race. Jorie Selig, Sarah Bennett, Olivia Lomax, and Maddie Finley bested their own program best from earlier this season by nearly a second, with Finley's 23.40 anchor split lead the way. 

The men also set a program record with their time of 1:22.06, tipping the mark set at last year's meet by three-hundreths. Harry Smith, Peyton Scherschel, Gareth Svanda, and Seth Krause were on the relay, with Krause anchoring in 20.03.

200-MEDLEY RELAY
The men's 200-medley relay also set a new program record as Sam LaPrade, Peyton Scherschel, Robert Clayton, and Harry Smith swam 1:29.66 to best the time of 1:29.75 set at the 2019 A3 Invite. Mines initially finished third by a hundreth of a second behind Oklahoma Christian, but bumped up to the silver medal spot on an OCU disqualification. 

The Mines women suffered bad luck in the 200-medley relay, initially appearing to finish second in 1:46.52 before being disqualified for an early take-off. 

1000-FREE
Meghan Slowey captured her first career RMAC gold medal with a thrilling 10:27.83 win in the 1,000-free. Trailing Colorado Mesa's Robyn Naze with 75 yards to go, Slowey took the lead on the bell turn and accelerated over the final 50 to win by nearly three seconds. Her time is an NCAA B mark. Out of the morning heats, Sam Henney scored an eighth-place 11:10.97, and Kailey Said finished 11th in 11:19.97. Hunter Stewart swam 11:27.38 for 13th.

Austin Rich was the bronze medalist in the men's 1,000 in a time of 9:52.95. He led four scorers for the Orediggers as Scott Reeder finished fourth in 9:53.36, Joe Peak a spot behind him in 10:01.75, and Henry Oberley eighth in 10:10.08.

200-IM
Annie Osmun swam a collegiate-best 2:06.77 to win the bronze medal in the 200-IM, finishing third in a close race with just a hundreth of a second between second and third. Osmun had also turned in a 2:07.84 in prelims. Erin Taggart finished eighth overall out of the B final with a 2:10.59 finals time (2:12.86 in prelims), and Nadia Smith was 13th in 2:13.67, a second and a half quicker than her prelim time of 2:15.15.

Jerry Birnbaum finished fifth in the men's race with a time of 1:53.56 after swimming 1:52.42 in prelims. Charles Burroughs was seventh in 1:56.13 (1:54.74 in prelims), and out of the B final, Nick Delany took 12th overall in 1:55.33 (1:55.74 prelims).

50-FREE
Freshman Jorie Selig established herself as the RMAC's top sprinter, winning the 50-freestyle gold in 23.87 seconds. A timing error led to a long delay after the race, but Selig was judged first in what was a very close finish. Selig had hit 23.77 in prelims. Maddie Finley was eighth in 24.37 after a prelim time of 24.12. 

In the morning prelims, Sarah Bennett was the first alternate in 17th with a time of 24.67, Olivia Lomax finished 20th in 24.81, Emma Neuroth was 28th in 25.11, Lauren Mayo 30th in 25.29, Jules Hays 39th in 25.67, and Kori Davis 40th in 25.80. Rachel Fontan finished 18th in the 200-IM in 2:19.51, and Claire Lautman was 22nd in 2:22.29.  

Six Oredigger men made it into finals including Harry Smith and Seth Krause to the A final, where Smith finished fifth (20.70) and Krause sixth (20.80). Smith qualified fifth in 20.58, an NCAA B time that is just five-hundreths off the Mines record, and Krause swam 20.78. 

Four Orediggers advance to the B final as Peyton Scherschel finished 10th in 21.08, Robert Clayton 12th in 21.21, Gareth Svanda 13th in 21.24, and Braden Hunt 16th in 21.48. Sam LaPrade (17th, 21.49) and Cobi Wood (18th, 21.52) were the alternates, and Ben Topper finished 23rd in 21.87.