FAIRBANKS, Alaska  Western Colorado swimmers won six of 11 events Friday in their first meet against the University of Alaska Fairbanks, downing the host Nanooks, 120-85, in a non-conference meet at the Patty Center Pool.

Morgan Nielsen was a double-event winner for the Mountaineers with Makenna Lambert, Zoe Wolfe and Misha Little adding first-place touches in three other individual events. Western capped the meet victory with a win in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay.

JUST THE FACTS
Final score: Western def. UA Fairbanks, 120-85
Records: Western 6-0, Fairbanks 2-9
Location: Patty Center Pool, Fairbanks, Alaska

HOW IT HAPPENED

• With Western holding a narrow 50-43 advantage after five events, it more than tripled that seven-point lead after the next two events.
• Event 6 was the 100 butterfly and the Mountaineers finished in first, third and fourth place to outscore the Nanoonks 14-5 in the event. Wolfe touched first for Western in a time of 1 minute, 1.12 seconds, followed by Sage Patterson in third place (1:02.77) and AvaMarie Hopewell in fourth (1:02.99).
• The next event, the 100 free, was nearly as dominating for the Mountaineers who picked up the win from Little (55.00 seconds) and got a third-place finish from Jordan Maruska (55.98) and a fifth from Hopewell (1:00.06), who was swimming in back-to-back events.
• The 13-6 point total from the event added with the points from the butterfly race just before stretched the seven-point lead to 23 (77-54).
• Two events later it was Nielsen leading a 1-2 finish in the 500 free. Nielsen had led a 1-2-3 finish – with Maruska and Sophia Del Rosario – in the first individual event on the schedule, the 1,650 free, then added her second win in the 500, edging out Lambert by 2/10s of a second, touching first in 5:24.43.
• The final victory of the meet for Western came in that free relay with a wire-to-wire win that was neck and neck the entire distance. Little, Nielsen and Maruska were able to maintain a lead that was roughly around a second or less over the first 300 yards, handing the lead off to Lambert for the anchor leg.
• Lambert held off a charging Fairbanks swimmer to hit the pads first with a relay time of 3:41.48, inches ahead of the Nanooks' runner-up time of 3:41.96.

UP NEXT
Western is right back at the Patty Center Pool on Saturday morning, squaring off with the Nanooks in a second dual meet beginning at 8 a.m. MT.