GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. Western Colorado was able to maintain its fourth-place spot after the second day of the TYR/CMU Invitational, using eight individual swims and a pair of relay foursomes in the night's finals session to distance itself from teams trailing on the leaderboard Thursday at Colorado Mesa University's El Pomar Natatorium.

Western had one scratch, Jordan Maruska, heading into the C-consolation final of the night's opening event, the 500-yard freestyle, a move that brought teammate Sidney-Ann Morris into the heat.

The front of the pack in the heat was a battle between Western's AvaMarie Hopewell and Portia Blackert of Colorado Mesa. Blackert led by a full two seconds through the first three 100s, but Hopewell put up a 1:03 fourth hundred to Blackert's 1:04 to cut into the deficit. Blackert was able to hold on, though, as both racers swam through 1:02's in their final 100s. Hopewell was second in the heat, by 6/10s of a second, with a time of 5:14.46 to finish 18th overall.

Gaining the unexpected chance to swim in the session, Morris was able to improve on her prelims time by one second to climb past one swimmer in the C-consol, finishing seventh in the heat and 23rd overall in a time of 5:37.88.

Like in the 500, a scratch of two prelims qualifiers elevated one Western swimmer, Leah Wagner, into the C-final of the 200 individual medley with teammate Tayla Liddle, while pushing LynDea Turner up into the scoring B-final.

Turner hit the butterfly to backstroke turn in last place in that B-final, but she blazed the backstroke leg with the fastest time of the heat (32.23) to move up to fifth place. She was able to maintain her hold on that spot over the final 100 to post a fifth-place time in the heat of 2:13.19, scoring four points for the Mountaineers by earning a 13th place overall.

Like in the 500, the front of the pack of the C-final was a battle that included a Mountaineer. Liddle held a slim lead on the heat after the butterfly and backstroke legs but fell back to second on the breaststroke 50. She was 1.35 seconds behind at the turn into the final 50 and used a strong freestyle leg to pull back within a half second of the eventual winner. Her efforts earned Liddle a second place in the heat and an overall place of 18th as she trimmed almost a second off her morning prelims time.

Wagner, 26th in the morning, took advantage of the scratches to climb into 23rd place overall. The freshman cut more than a second off her morning swim (2:18.41) to finish seventh in the heat with a time of 2:17.18.

The final individual event of the evening session was the dash for cash, the 50 free, and like the events beforehand, a scratch brought Western's Courtney Coplan into the C-final to join Makenna Lambert, Addison O'Donnell and Taylor Grebe.

It was Grebe that came in ahead of her Mountaineer teammates, improving from 23rd place in the morning to 19th overall after posting a time of 24.73 seconds.

O'Donnell (24.78) held her place to finish 20th while Lambert (24.98) was 22nd. Coplan, whose morning swim was 25th fastest – with the top 24 qualifying for the evening – used the scratch of another swimmer to move up to 23rd place overall, posting a time of 25.07.

That finally put the relays behind the blocks for the last event of the session, with the Western 'A' and 'B' quartets racing in the fast final heat.

Coplan led off the 'A' team, with Grebe, Lambert and O'Donnell following. The four finished seventh with a time of 1:39.63.

The 'B' squad had Emma Smith, Afton Page, Liddle and Maruska together, and they posted a time of 1:41.98 that was eighth fastest in the heat.

Friday's prelims begin at 10 a.m., with the finals session slated for a 5 p.m. start.

PRELIMS RECAP
Thursday morning's preliminary session of the four-day TYR/CMU Invitational at Colorado Mesa University saw six Western Colorado swimmers advance into the evening's final/consolation heats at the El Pomar Natatorium.

All six will race in the 'C' consols heat in their respective events. The top eight times from the preliminary heats qualify for the championship ('A') final, the next eight for the B-consolation final and the next eight for the C-consols.

Both Jordan Maruska and AvaMarie Hopewell will step up on the blocks of the 500-yard freestyle's second consolation heat. The pair dueled in the fourth of four prelims heats in the morning.

Maruska was in front of Hopewell at the 100 mark but the two switched places by the 200 mark. Hopewell led the two at the 300 and 400 flips but Maruska battled back with a final 100 split of 1 minute, 3 seconds to overtake Hopewell who came through the final 100 in 1:06.35.

With her time of 5:20.13, Maruska finished 20th in the prelims while Hopewell was 21st with a time of 5:22.93.

The 200 individual medley C-consolation heat will include LynDea Turner, 18th in prelims with a time of 2: 14.41, and Tayla Liddle (2:15.38), who placed 20th in the prelims. Just missing out on a return to the evening session was Leah Wagner who was 26th after hitting the pad at 2:18.41. The final spot in the C heat was just a second faster, at 2:17.37.

The final individual event of the morning prelims was the premier sprint event, the 50 free.

Makenna Lambert, Addison O'Donnell and Taylor Grebe will each get another shot in the C-consols at night. Lambert was 19th in the morning with a time of 24.73 seconds, O'Donnell (24.78) was next in 20th, with Grebe (24.85) finishing in 23rd.

The heartbreak of the event was Western's Courtney Coplan who was 25th in the morning, one spot shy of a return spot, with a time of 25.06. The final evening qualifier posted a 24th-place time of 24.87.

The six Mountaineers will return for the 5 p.m. session, along with Western's relay entries in the timed final 200 freestyle relay.