OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha Mavericks come up short 190-109 to the Nebraska Huskers in Saturday's meet. Despite coming up short in points, the Mavericks had five first place finishes.  

"I'm super proud of our women," said Head Coach Jessica Hessel. "They stepped up against the competitive swim and dive program. We were very fearless in how we approached our races and had high energy the entire meet. Everyone kept it simple and competed the best that they could. It worked out well for us and we were able to walk away with five 1st place finishes."
 
 Saturday's meet opened with the 200-medley relay. Omaha's team of Hailey Matthews, Olivia Dendinger, Annika Bussinger, and Payton Easley had the first first-place finish of the day. The team paced the race with a time of 1:45.49. They legs were split 35.14, 22.12, 25.15, and 23.08. 

In the 1000-free, Kadence Jeffries took the second place finish with a time of 10:39.83. Anna Lowary claimed fourth with a time of 11:17.31.

During the 200-free, Parker Hagemann (1:57.45) took fourth, Aubrey Hutter (1:59.16) took the last top-five finish. 

The Mavericks had their second first place finish in the 100-back. Matthews earned first with a time of 56.69 and just behind her taking second place was Annika Bussinger (56.80). 

Omaha had three of the top-five finishes in the 100-breast. Coming in third was Dendinger finishing with a time of 1:07.22. In fourth and fifth was Jillian Altmaier (1:08.00) and Alaina Agnew (1:10.60), respectively. 

In the 200-butterfly Heidi Lenarz took fourth with a time of 2:13.43. 

Payton Easley had another first place finish on the day. She earned first in the 50-free with an impressive time of 23.63, finishing almost a whole second ahead of her competition. 

Easley continued her success in the 100-free, claiming another first place finish. She paced the race with a time of 51.28, finishing 1.29 seconds ahead of the second place finish. Dendinger took third in this race with a time of 53.31. 

In the 200-back, Liv Theil and Streblow took the second and third place finishes. They finished with times of 2:07.67 and 2:10.82 respectively. 

Payton Krug came in third during the 200-breast, with final time of 2:31.20. 

Event 12 of the day was the 500-free where Hutter took third with a time of 5:15.07. Carina Monroe took fifth and earned a point for the Mavericks finishing with a time of 5:19.98. 

The last first place finish of the meet for the Mavericks come from Bussinger in the 100-butterfly. She paced the race with a 56.55 finish. Coming in third was Matthews with a time of 57.58. 

In the 200-IM Dendinger claimed third with a final time of 2:09.99. 

The final event of the day was the 400-free relay. Omaha's team consisting of Matthews, Hagemann, Bussinger, and Easley came in second with a time of 3:30.81. 

In the diving portion of the meet, Darby Drake finished second on the 1-meter with a final score of 281.00. Drake was just .20 points off from her competition who finished in first. Reece Cooper picked up a point with the fifth place finish and a final score of 231.55. 

Drake came in fourth on the 3-meter with a final score of 280.05. Behind her and picking up one more point for Omaha was Cooper with a score of 225.15.

"We're feeling good about how we're diving right now," said diving coach Eric Sprague. "We've used the Husker diving program to gauge our progress since I've been the coach here and this is by far the closest we've been with them.  Brooke, Bella, Reece, Holly and Darby competed tough today and embraced the challenge.  Watching Darby finish just two-tenths out of first place on 1 meter and the rest of the women put in big scoring dives today against our toughest competition should be a valuable confidence boost for the group."

UP NEXT
The Mavericks, men and women, return to action on Dec. 1  for their first Summit League meet. Omaha will host South Dakota State in the H&K pool at 5 p.m.