GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  Western Colorado earned another NCAA Division II B standard with sophomore Makenna Lambert's seventh-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle Thursday night at the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships. 

Teammate and freshman Morgan Nielsen swam to the Mountaineers' first NCAA championship B cut Wednesday night in the 1,000 free, and now Lambert joins her on the NCAA's provisional list. 

In Thursday's championship heat of the 200, Lambert posted a career-best time of 1 minute, 52.80 seconds to crash through the B standard of 1:53.08. 

She went through the first 100 in 54.55 seconds, almost a full second ahead of her split (55.34) from the morning preliminary heats. She brought the second 100 home in 58.25, again faster than the morning's final split (58.98).  

Lambert entered the championship final seeded eighth and was in that same position after 150 yards, but her final 50 of 28.87 pushed her past a Simon Fraser University swimmer one lane inside her to hit the pad in seventh place. 

Just prior to Lambert's NCAA provisional swim, Western earned 12th and 13th places from the consolation final of the 200. 

Nielsen was 12th with a collegiate-best time of 1:54.74, followed by Jordan Maruska in 13th in a time of 1:55.30. 

In the event before the 200 free, the Mountaineers picked up 14 points from their three swimmers in the consolation heat of the 400 individual medley. 

Sophia Del Rosario closed the race with one of the fastest freestyle legs (1:03.68) of all the competitors in the race, lifting her to a second-place finish in the heat and a 10th-place finish overall. Her final time of 4:41.45 is a career best and bettered her prelims swim by two seconds. 

LynDea Turner and Harlie Taylor finished in 13th and 14th place, respectively. Turner turned in the fastest backstroke split (1:09.55) of the heat on the way to a final time of 4:43.94, while Taylor was a challenger on that backstroke leg (1:09.86) and hit the final touchpad with a time of 4:47.53. 

In the final event of Thursday's championship session, the Mountaineers earned sixth and 14th places from their 'A' and 'B' 400 medley relays. 

In the consolation final, the 'B' foursome of Turner, Trinity Caudle, AvaMarie Hopewell and Nielsen finished with a time of 3:58.06 for 14th overall. 

The 'A' relay of Afton Page, Leah Wagner, Sage Patterson and Lambert were sixth in a time of 3:57.00. 

The Mountaineers began the day in sixth place but in a bunch in the middle of the pack on the team leaderboard. They closed out Thursday's session by moving up to fifth place with 198 points, 38 points behind fourth-place Oklahoma Christian and 38 points ahead of sixth-place University of Texas Permian Basin. 

Friday's preliminary heats are slated for a 10 a.m. start. 

PRELIMS RECAP
Western Colorado advanced six swimmers from the Thursday preliminaries session into the evening finals session with three qualifying in the 400-yard individual medley and three moving on in the 200 freestyle at the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.

Makenna Lambert will lead the Mountaineer trio in the 200 free after posting a career-best time of 1 minute, 54.32 seconds in her prelims heat. Lambert's time was the eighth-fastest in the morning, elevating her to the evening's championship heat.

Swimming in the night's consolation final will be Jordan Maruska and Morgan Nielsen. Maruska's season-best time of 1:54.44 narrowly missed a spot in the championship heat as she will go into the consolation heat as the top seed. Nielsen also posted a season best, hitting the pad in her prelims heat in 1:55.08 with the 12th-fastest time.

In the 400 IM it will be Sophia Del Rosario, Harlie Taylor and LynDea Turner representing the Mountaineers in the consolation final. Del Rosario's season best of 4:43.46 was 12th after the prelims heats, Taylor's season best of 4:44.09 was 13th, while Turner's time of 4:46.29 was 14th.

Western was heartbreakingly close to six other swimmers advancing.

Sage Patterson posted a season best time of 59.03 seconds in the preliminary heats of the 100 butterfly, finishing with the 17th-fastest prelims time – just 0.19 seconds behind the 16th and final advancing time. As such, Patterson is the first alternate should anyone from the championship or consolation final heats scratch in the afternoon.

AvaMarie Hopewell's career-best time of 59.26 in the same event was 20th after the prelim swims, and Ella Fries' career-best of 59.33 was 21st.

In the 400 IM, Leah Wagner is the first alternate with teammate Trinity Caudle the second alternate for the consolation final. Wagner's season best of 4:49.07 placed 17th and Caudle's career best 4:58.42 was 18th.

Misha Little's season-best time of 1:56.67 in the 200 free was 18th after the prelims and was just 0.39 seconds off 16th place.

The Mountaineers will field both an 'A' and 'B' relay in the final event of the night's championship session, putting together a pair of foursomes to swim in the consolation and championship heats of the 400 medley relay.