GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  Western Colorado opened the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference 2024 Swimming and Diving Championship meet Tuesday night with fifth and 14th-place finishes in the 800-yard freestyle relay, closing out the first session of the five-day meet in fifth place in the team standings.

JUST THE FACTS
Event: RMAC 2024 Swimming and Diving Championship
Location: El Pomar Natatorium, Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colo.
Team scores: 1 – Colorado Mesa (64 points), 2 – Simon Fraser University (54), T-3 – Colorado School of Mines (48), T-3 – Oklahoma Christian University (48), 5 – Western Colorado (42), 6 – Colorado State University Pueblo (38), 7 – Nebraska-Kearney (32), 8 – Texas Permian Basin (28), 9 – Adams State (24)

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The five-day meet began Tuesday with a single event, the 800 free relay.
• The Mountaineer quartet of Jordan Maruska, AvaMarie Hopewell, Morgan Nielsen and Misha Little combined for the fifth-place time of 7 minutes, 47.71 seconds.
• Maruska led the 'A' relay off with a 1:55.78 opening 200, followed by Hopewell's 1:59.58 and Nielsen's 1:55.02 split.
• Little brought the relay home with an anchor split of 1:57.33.
• In 14th place was the 'B' relay foursome of Harlie Taylor, Afton Page, Sophia Del Rosario and LynDea Turner.
• Taylor led off with a 1:58.79, with Page finishing the second leg with a 1:01.74 split. Del Rosario posted a split of 1:58.10 with Turner finishing off with a 2:00.68.

LANE NOTES

• Host Colorado Mesa captured the event with an RMAC championship meet record of 7:19.44, nine seconds ahead of the runner-up squad from Simon Fraser.
• The Mavericks, Simon Fraser, and third-place Oklahoma Christian each posted provisional qualifying times for the NCAA Division II championship meet.

UP NEXT

• Day 2 of the championship meet kicks off at 10 a.m. on Wednesday with the prelims of the 1,000 free, 200 individual medley, and 50 free.
• The 1-meter diving prelims take place in the afternoon beginning at 2 p.m.