M/W Swimming at the 2023 RMAC Championships – Tuesday-Saturday (9 a.m. prelims/5 p.m. Finals)
Hosted by Colorado Mesa University [RMAC Network] [Live Results] [Championship Central]

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THE POSTSEASON IS HERE
Starting on Tuesday evening, the Colorado School of Mines Men's and Women's Swimming teams open the 2023 postseason at the RMAC Swimming & Diving Championships in Grand Junction, Colo. Tons of hardware is on the line during the five-day event, and the Orediggers will be in competition for lots of it. A full event schedule is available on the meet central page at www.rmacsports.org, and there will be wall-to-wall coverage on the RMAC Network.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
As mentioned above, all five days of the 2023 RMAC Swimming & Diving Championships will stream live and for free on the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Network. There will also be live results available. The RMAC Network can be accessed at www.minesathletics.com/tv, as well as with apps on all major smart TV platforms by searching RMAC. Live statistics are also available at www.minesathletics.com.
 
THE FORMAT
Postseason action officially begins with a single session on Tuesday evening which features the 800-freestyle relay. Teams with a "B" seeding will go in the first heat with "A" seeding times going in the second heat. All events for the entire week will feature women first and men second. After opening night on Tuesday, each day will feature three different sessions. On Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, swimming prelims start at 9 a.m. each morning. Diving prelims go off at 1 p.m. each day. Finals for all events competed earlier in the day will start at 5 p.m. Fans can view the full, detailed schedule at the meet central page. The swimming & diving championship schedule was changed last summer to match the same schedule used at the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships.
 
HOW TO SCORE
The 2023 RMAC Swimming & Diving Championships will use the normal championship scoring structure. The top-16 individual swimmers from the swimming preliminaries will advance to the evening finals. In those evening sessions, there will be an eight-person championship final and an eight-person consolation finals. Team points will be awarded to all 16 in the finals in the following amounts with first place getting 20 teams points and 16th place getting one team points (20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1). Diving events will also be scored in the same manner. It's also worth noting that the 1000-free and 1650-free do not have preliminary rounds. Relay events, which also don't have preliminary heats, are worth double the team points, and "B" relay teams will swim in a separate heat with a shot at ninth place overall. Individual swimmers can score in up to four individual and seven total events. Each team is limited to 18 scoring athletes.
 
HARDWARE ON THE LINE
Included on the list of available awards this week is First-Team All-RMAC, Second-Team All-RMAC, Swimmer of the Year, Diver of the Year, Freshman of the Year, and Coach of the Year. Each award will be given to each gender. First-Team All-RMAC status goes to the first-place, and second-place swimmers in individual events, and the top-two relay teams as well. Second-Team All-RMAC is earned by the third and fourth finishing swimmers in individuals events and the third and fourth relay teams. Swimmer and Diver of the Year is voted on by the coaches with a tie resulting in co-awards. Freshman of the Year and Coach of the Year are also voted on by the coaches.
 
OREDIGGER FAVORITES
According to the psych sheets released late last week, Mines' men and women boast three top-seeded swimmers and 16 individuals projected to claimed 25 All-RMAC awards. Additionally, the Oredigger men and women tout 10 different relays seeded to win All-RMAC distinction. The top seeds for Mines include Meghan Slowey in the women's 1650-free, Ronan Lauinger in the men's 1000-free, and Annie Osmun in the women's 100-fly. Lauinger is seeded #2 in the 400-IM and #4 in the 500-free as well. Also notable is Charles Burroughs who holds the #2 times in the 100- and 200- fly while also sitting #3 in the 200-IM.
 
REIGNING AND DEFENDING
Colorado School of Mines returns two defending RMAC Champions from its 2021-22 squad as well as the reigning RMAC Coach of the Year for both the men and women. Annie Osmun was the 100-fly champion in 2022, and Ronan Lauinger captured gold in the 400-IM last season as well. Furthermore, Head Coach Claire McDaniel swept RMAC Coach of the Year for the men and women for a second straight year. Meghan Slowey repeated as Co-Women's Swimmer of the Year, and Olivia Kisow was named Co-Women's Freshman of the Year.
 
LAST YEAR'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
At the 2022 RMAC Swimming & Diving Championships, the Orediggers produced a pair of runner-up finishes in the team standings and brought home three major awards. As mentioned above, Slowey, McDaniel and Kisow earned superlative awards while the Mines men and women totaled 61 all-RMAC nods and 21 combined medals. The women's team scored 775.5 points which marked a 177.5-point improvement from 2021. Mines' men tallied 874.5 points which was also an improvement from the previous seasons. Both teams scores were program bests under Coach McDaniel.  
 
REMEMBERING SENIOR DAY
The last action for the Oredigger men and women leading up to this week's championships was a Senior Day dual against NCAA Division I Wyoming. While the Jan. 21 festivities saw the visitors sweep the home team on the scoreboard, Mines used the day to celebrate its seniors. Nick Delany, Sam LaPrade, Josh Lee, Nathan O'Neil, Joe Peak, Braden Whitmarsh, Claire Lautman and Meghan Slowey were all honored before the first gun. Each individual senior appeared in a plethora of races, and there were also seven different pool records broken by the visitors from Wyoming.
 
RMAC SWIMMER OF THE WEEK
Joe Peak's performances on his own Senior Day led to RMAC Swimmer of the Week distinction for the first time in his career. He earned it after an iron-man day against NCAA Division I Wyoming. Peak appeared in five races including three individual events and two relays. He collected second-place points in the 200-free with a time of 1:47.33 and helped with second-place points in the 200-freestyle relay as well thanks to a 1:28.49 pace. The Roswell, Ga., native added #3 finishes with the 400-medley relay (3:28.34) and the 200-fly (1:56.79). He added an exhibition in the 50-free and touched in 22.72
 
IN THE RANKINGS
The latest national rankings saw the Colorado School of Mines men hold strong at #13 in the nation while the Oredigger women received 11 votes. Mines' men made their initial surge to #13 over the winter holiday break. The Oredigger women started the season receiving votes and briefly dropped out during the month of December. They are now the top-scoring team in the receiving votes section. Also notable in the rankings are Colorado Mesa's women at #2 in the nation and the CMU men sitting #4. Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference affiliate member Oklahoma Christian boasts its men at #10 as well. The #1 team on the men's list is Drury while Nova Southeastern is the top-ranked women's team.
 
ACADEMIC ACCOLADES
Late last week, the CSCAA named the Mines men and women's teams Scholar All-America Teams for their fall classroom performance. The men's team GPA of 3.47 tied for fifth-highest in all of NCAA Division II.
 
RECORDS SHALL FALL
All it took was four days at the TYR/CMU Invitational in November and nine different Oredigger program records fell. More are sure to fall this week at the RMAC Championships. At the meet in November, Annie Osmun broke the 200-IM record by touching in 2:06.21. Emi Jedryka etched her name in history thanks to a 2:03.16 in the 200-back. Jordan Tierney's top 100-breast was 1:03.60 and put her #1 in program history as well. Two relays also forced women's record book edits. The 200-medley relay of Emma Neuroth, Cameryn Schmidt, Osmun and Jorie Selig touched in 1:43.37, while Jedryka, Tierney, Osmun, and Selig paced out at 3:50.62 in the 400-medley relay. On the men's side, three individuals and one relay revised the program record book. Garrett Waite swam the 200-IM in 1:49.44. Charles Burroughs broke his own 100-fly record twice, touting a top time of 48.31. Jakson WInn rounded out the individual records by producing a 49.09 in the 100-back. It was the 800-freestyle that did the relay damage. Waite, Winn, Michael Kietzman, and Joe Peak combined for a 6:43.00.
 
AT THE HELM
Colorado School of Mines Swimming Head Coach Claire McDaniel is in her fourth season at the helm for the Oredigger men and women. McDaniel became back-to-back RMAC Coach of the Year for the men and women after sweeping the awards for a second straight season last February. Through three seasons, she has coached four RMAC Swimmers of the Year, three RMAC Freshmen of the Year, and nine all-America swims out of 10 individuals and two relays to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
 
STANDING IN THE HALL OF FAME
On Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, Colorado School of Mines inducted two individuals and two teams into the Harry D. Campbell Oredigger Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2022. The two teams inducted were the 1983 women's swimming & diving team and the 1981 to 1984 men's swimming & diving teams. The women's squad was the first Mines women's team to win a conference championship. The men's team won four consecutive RMAC titles under Head Coach Bob McCandless. That run capped a stretch of six titles in seven years dating back to 1978. Full profiles of each Hall of Fame team can be found HERE.
 
UP NEXT
After the conference championships, Mines' men and women will await the announcing of the field for the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships. Those who qualify will compete in Indianapolis from March 8-11 with national championships on the line. All postseason information will be announced at www.minesathletics.com.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines swimming on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @MinesSwimming. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.