OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha Mavericks took second in both the men's and women's rankings in the A3 Invitational. The Mavericks competed over a period of three days. The women came in second with 715 points, trailing Southern Illinois. The men tallied 634 points, also trailing Southern Illinois. 

The Mavericks broke the school record in the women's 400-free relay, women's 100-free, men's 200-free, and men's 500 free.*

"That was a fun meet for our team," said Head Coach Jessica Hessel. "Outside of performances, our team was a unit and we rode the highs and lows together. I'm certain that is the reason why we kept the lows to a minimum and allow the highs to be limitless. I am most proud of our team for those reasons."

 Thursday opened with the 200-free relay. The men took third with a time of  1:22.54 and the women finished second with a time of 1:34.65. The men's team was compiled with Owen Hoak, Caleb Miller, Jace Walker, and Grant Waszak. The women's team was Julia Thomas, Hailey Matthews, Leah Spencer, and Payton Easley. 

 In the preliminaries of the 500-free Matthews took first, pacing the event with a 4:59.14 time.* 
 
Olivia Dendinger took the third spot of the preliminary round of the 200-IM. She came in with a time of 31.44. During the men's finals of the 200-IM, Miller claimed third with a time of 1:51.02 after his first place finish in the preliminary round with a time of 1:51.08. 

Event 7 of the meet was the 50-free, where Payton Easley earned first after a 23.33 finish. She improved her time from the preliminary round by 0.17.  
 
A team compiled of Gracie Streblow, Olivia Dendinger, Annika Bussinger, and Payton Easley clocked second after a 3:47.81 finish in the 400-medley relay. The men's relay team of Mason Schroeder, Amir Haviv, Jace Walker, and Owen Hoak placed third with a 3:20.48 finish. 
 
In the 200-medley relay of Matthews, Dendinger, Bussinger and Easley earned second with a 1:43.38 time. The men's event, with a team of Schroeder, Haviv, Walker, and Hoak placed third finishing 1:30.80. 

In the finals of the 100-butterfly, Bussinger claimed third with a time of 55.26. Jace Walker came in fifth for the men's portion of the event with a 49.74 finish. 

Matthews (1:51.42) and Parker Hangemann (1:53.03) took second and third, respectively in the 200-free. Kyle Kulow placed second with a time of 1:39.61.*

In the 200-butterfly Matthews finished the race with a 2:10.62 time, earning her first. On the men's side, Aj Swibold finished second after 2:01.56 race. Kyle Kulow placed second in men's with a time of 1:38.84.

Event 22 was the men's 100-breast, where Haviv earned second with a time of 55.99 and Kyle Peterson finished fourth with a time of 56.08. 

Pacing Omaha in the 100-back was Bussinger who earned second after a 56.19 swim. In fourth and fifth was Hangemann and Streblow with 56.81 and 57.08 times, respectively. Schroeder finished first in the preliminary round with a 49.92 time, beating his opponent by .02. 

Another second place finish was claimed by the Mavericks in the 800-free relay by a team of Dendinger, Aubrey Hutter, Carina Monroe, and Matthews after a 7:45.88 finish. 

In the 1650 freestyle, Monroe finished in third with a time of 17:31.87 and Hutter followed just behind with a 17:34.24 time. 

Easley earned a first place finish in the 100-free after a 50.27 finish.*

During event 34a, the men's 100-free swim-off, Grant Schaeffer beat out his opponent with a 45.51 time. 

Matthews placed third in the 200-butterfly after a 2:04.52 swim. 

Omaha claimed another first place finish in the 400-free relay with a finish of 3:24.08 from a team compiled of Easley, Hangemann, Dendinger, and Matthews.*
For the men, they claimed second with a time of 3:00.73 from a team of Hoak, Schaeffer, Kulow, and Miller. 

Bussinger finished the meet with her 200-breast time trial with a time of 2:04.04. 

"Outside of team culture, we got at good look at what our training has done for us so far this season and we know where to focus our training for the back half of season," said Hessel. "There have been many changes in the way we train and that sometimes takes time to see the results. It was fun to see the team buy in and have success with it. Now we get back to work so we can finish the job in February."

 
In the men's 1-meter finals, Ian Blackstock claimed the top place for his third meet in a row. He totaled 272.45 points. Cort Chiodo came in third with a 261.50 final score. For the women, Darby Drake placed fifth with a 239.9 final. 

The women's 3-meter dive placed Darby in fourth after a 252.10 final score and Brooke Robbins in sixth with a 219.0 score. Blackstock took first again in the 3M after scoring 288.20 points. 
 
"We had some good competition for everyone, and I'm pleased with how we performed," said Diving Coach Eric Sprague.  A meet like this is a different animal and the nerves can be hard to control.  I think we showed great discipline and growth in this area.  Our men really started us off with great momentum when four of them qualified for finals on Thursday's 1-meter event.  Darby and Brooke making finals will provide great experience at the end of the season.  This was Darby's first meet with more than one opponent since the end of her sophomore season, so it was nice to see her work back into a larger competition again."
 
"Day two was more of the of the same with two of our men getting into finals on 3-meter and Darby making it into finals on 1-meter.  Seeing four of our five men and two of our three women make finals this week makes me excited for our possibilities the rest of the season."
 
"Congratulations to Ian winning both boards this week!  Getting the victory Wednesday on 1-meter was fun to watch and he had to grind the whole meet to come out on top by just two-tenths of a point.  It was his final dive that put him into the top spot.  Ian led from start to finish Friday on 3-meter and it was a solid performance."

UP NEXT
The women will compete against the Nebraska Huskers on Nov. 18 at home.The men will take some time off and return to action for conference competition against South Dakota State on Dec. 1 at home.