GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  The Mountaineers picked up team points in four of the five individual events as well as the session-ending relay Friday evening on the penultimate day of the TYR/CMU Invitational at Colorado Mesa University's El Pomar Natatorium.

A pair of Mountaineers qualified from the morning preliminary swims into the non-scoring C-final of the 100-yard butterfly that kicked off the evening's session. AvaMarie Hopewell would take third in the heat, finishing 19th overall, in a time of 1 minute, 00.72 seconds. Also in the heat was Anna Maurello who improved on her morning time with a nighttime swim of 1:01.86 that was seventh in the heat and 22nd overall.

The 400 individual medley heats brought Western its first points of the night as LynDea Turner and Leah Wagner swam in the B-final heat.

The top seed in the heat, Turner held firm in that position throughout all four legs of the race, using a 1:10.30 split in the backstroke – almost three seconds faster than the next fastest split – to build a cushion she would maintain all the way to the touch, winning the heat in 4:43.75 to finish in ninth place overall.

Teammate Leah Wagner also bested her prelims swim, posting a time of 4:55.31, six seconds faster than the morning, to finish third in the heat and 11th overall.

The two combined to add 15 points to Western's team total.

The 200 freestyle added more points to the Mountaineers' Friday haul as Jordan Maruska moved up a spot from her seed time from the morning, taking sixth place in the B-final with a time of 1:56.72. She was last in the heat at both the 50 and 100 turns but from the outside lane pushed past a pair of swimmers on the third 50 and stayed in that position to the touch, ending her swim in 14th place overall and scoring three points for Western.

Just prior to Maruska's turn it was Tayla Liddle, Makenna Lambert and Taylor Grebe representing Western in the C-final. Liddle (1:58.90) would finish fourth in the heat and 20th overall, while Lambert (2:00.47) was seventh and 23rd overall and Grebe (2:04.84) was eighth in the heat and 24th overall.

The 100 breaststroke was the second event of the night in which Western had two swimmers in the B-final, Addison O'Donnell and Trinity Caudle.

O'Donnell improved on her morning time by almost a second and seeded second in the heat would finish in that spot, 10th overall, with a time of 1:05.38. Caudle finished seventh in the heat in 1:09.55 to take 15th overall, with the two accumulating nine points for Western.

In one heat earlier and in her second event of the night it was Wagner in the C-final. She was 1.2 seconds behind the leader at the 50 but narrowed that gap to a half second at the end, bettering her prelims swim and finishing second in the heat and 18th overall in a time of 1:09.58.

Courtney Coplan in the 100 backstroke prelims earned Western its first championship final swimmer of the Invite, with Turner earning her way into the B-final and four Mountaineers swimming in the C-final.

That C-final was first in the water and included a big time drop from Afton Page who was seeded sixth in the heat. Page had a mad dash over the final 50 – her split of 30.70 was the fastest in the heat – to improve her prelim time by two seconds to finish in 1:00.46, third in the heat and 19th overall.

Liddle (1:01.09) dropped a half second from the morning, taking fifth in the heat (21st overall), just ahead of teammate Bella Gamez (1:02.66, 22nd overall), while Emma Smith (1:03.74) finished eighth (24th).

The B-final brought Turner back to the pool and she made the most of her return, swimming from the last seeded position in lane 9 but moving up four spots to take fourth in the heat and breaking the 1:00 mark with a 12th-place overall time of 59.43.

In the championship final it was Coplan finishing eighth overall with a time of 58.15, adding 11 points to Turner's 5 points from the B-final.

The final event of Friday's session was the 400 medley relay, with the quartet of Coplan, O'Donnell, Hopewell and Lambert forming the 'A' team for Western, and Page, Gamez, Maurello and Grebe making up the 'B' foursome.

The two teams combined to add 42 points to the Western total as the 'A' relay finished seventh with a time of 4:01.01 and the 'B' relay (4:09.52) was ninth.

The team scoring at the end of Day 3 of 4 has Western maintaining fourth place with 227 points.

Saturday's prelims session will begin at 10 a.m., with the finals session starting at 4 p.m.

PRELIMS RECAP
Friday morning's preliminaries session of the TYR/CMU Invitational at Colorado Mesa University's El Pomar Natatorium produced at least 14 Western Colorado swimmers who advanced into the evening's finals and consolation heats session.

Thursday's finals session included an upgraded couple of Mountaineers who benefited from afternoon scratches to move up from just out of the running into spots within the C-consolation final. So the number of Western swimmers heading into the Friday finals session could very well increase.

Cementing a place in the night's 100-yard butterfly heats is AvaMarie Hopewell who posted a time of 1 minute, 00.05 seconds in her prelim heat to earn the 21st-fastest swim. On the outside looking in is a hopeful Anna Maurello whose 25th-place time of 1:02.32 is just one spot shy of coming back at night.

The 400 individual medley produced a pair of Mountaineers who will definitely score points in the night session.

LynDea Turner, who was 13th Thursday night in the 200 IM B-final, will be back for the B-final in the 400 IM after hitting the pad with the 12th-place time of 4:44.43 in the morning. Teammate Leah Wagner (23rd in the 200 IM), will join Turner in the longer IM's B-final after turning in a time of 5:01.64.

The 200 freestyle preliminary heats should produce at least three nighttime returners for Western.

Jordan Maruska's time of 1:57.61 was 15th fastest in the morning, locking her into the B-final point-scoring heat. Two spots out of that heat but locked into the C-final is Tayla Liddle (1:58.70) in 20th, and teammate Makenna Lambert (2:00.05) locked herself into the C-final.

Two spots out of the C-final is Taylor Grebe (2:04.63) in 26th, hoping for at least two scratches that would elevate her into the night session.

The 100 breaststroke evening heats will include a trio of Mountaineers, led by Addison O'Donnell who was 11th with a time of 1:06.04. Joining her in the B-final and also swimming for points is Trinity Caudle (1:08.35) with the 14th-fastest prelims time.

Wagner will be swimming, so far, in the C-final after her time of 1:10.84 was 18th fastest in the morning. Two scratches from any swimmer above her will elevate Wagner into the B-final for her second swim of the night.

Earning Western's first championship final spot of the meet is Courtney Coplan in the 100 backstroke. She registered the seventh-fastest time in the morning prelims, 57.92 seconds, to lock into the A-final.

Mountaineers will make up half of the C-final, with one more peaking in from a spot shy of the evening heat. Turner (1:00.39) in 18th, Liddle (1:01.53) in 21st, Emma Smith (1:02.19) in 23rd and Afton Page (1:02.24) in 24th make up four of the eight C-final spots.

And Bella Gamez (1:02.45), in 25th, could make it five Mountaineers if there is one scratch between prelims and finals.

The evening session, which will also include the timed final heats of the 400 medley relay, is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.