GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  Mountaineer swimmers posted four career-best times during Friday's championship session of the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, helping Western Colorado maintain its fifth-place slot in the team standings with one day remaining in the meet. 

Makenna Lambert, Afton Page, Trinity Caudle and Sage Patterson registered career bests in their respective events, continuing a 'career' performance by the swimmers at the championship meet. 

Lambert was the first in the pool Friday for the Mountaineers, swimming in the consolation final of the 500-yard freestyle. The sophomore improved her preliminaries time by four seconds, posting a 13th-place time of 5 minutes, 13.63 seconds, two seconds faster than her collegiate best swim in the event. 

In the championship heat it was freshman Morgan Nielsen taking eighth place overall, finishing in a time of 5:08.22. 

Next up for Western was Page who had qualified for the consolation final in the 100 backstroke with the 16th and final spot. 

Page bettered both her earlier career best time along with her final place in the consols, moving up to 14th place with a new career best of 1:00.24. 

The 100 breaststroke followed, with the Mountaineers pushing two swimmers into the championship heat and one into the consols after the morning prelims. 

Ella Fries was first up in the consolation final, nearly equaling the career best time from the prelims and finishing in 13th place with a time of 1:06.88. 

The championship final included Leah Wagner and Caudle for the Mountaineers. 

Both had posted career best in the morning prelims and the championship heat saw Caudle touch in a new best time while Wagner was nearly identical to her morning swim. 

Caudle finished seventh overall in a time of 1:05.72 while Wagner was eighth in 1:05.80 (just 0.02 off her prelims career best). 

The final individual swimming event of the session had two Mountaineer competing in the consolation heat of the 200 butterfly. 

Patterson maintained her 11th place from the morning with a new career best swim of 2:11.13, while Miranda Noonan finished in 16th place with a time of 2:17.30 (after posting career best of 2:13.63 in the prelims to qualify for the consols). 

The Mountaineer had both a 'B' and 'A' relay entered in the night's final event, the 200 free relay. 

The quartet of Zoe Wolfe, Patterson, Page and Noonan placed 14th in a time of 1:41.62, and in the championship heat, the foursome of Jordan Maruska, Sophia Del Rosario, Fries and Misha Little combined for for a fifth-place time of 1:38.12. 

In between the prelims and championship finals sessions, divers Ashlynn Mixon and Andie Moon were up on the 3-meter board, vying for one of the eight spots advancing into the nighttime's finals on the high board. 

Mixon just missed advancing, placing ninth in those prelims with an 11-dive score of 235.80, while Moon was 10th with a score of 170.50. 

Western had started Friday's championship session in fifth place with a 38-point advantage over University of Texas Permian Basin and trailing Oklahoma Christian University by the identical 38-point deficit.  

The Mountaineers maintained their spot on the team leaderboard, finishing the night with 308 points to increase their advantage over sixth-place UTBP (262 pts.) but slipping a bit further back from fourth place OCU (375 pts.). 

Western will head back to El Pomar Natatorium for one final day of competition on Saturday, opening with preliminary heat at 10 a.m. followed by the last championship session at 5:30 p.m. 

PRELIMS RECAP
The preliminary heats on Day 4 of the 2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships closed Friday afternoon with eight Western Colorado swimmers earning advancement into the evening's championship session.

Morgan Nielsen initiated the Mountaineer momentum in the first event of the day, the 500-yard freestyle. The freshman posted a school record time of 5 minutes, 4.80 seconds to place fifth after the prelim swims, while also earning her second NCAA B (provisional) cut after doing so earlier in the meet in the 1,000 free.

Nielsen will swim in Friday night's championship heat, following a consolation final that will include teammate Makenna Lambert, who swim to a season best 5:17.16 to finish the prelims with the 14th-fastest time.

The Mountaineers just missed adding two more swimmers to the event at night as Sophia Del Rosario's season best and 17th-place time of 5:20.28 was one spot shy of the consolation heat, and Jordan Maruska's time of 5:20.77 was 18th after the prelims.

Western added another consolation heat swimmer from the 100 backstroke prelims, with Afton Page registering a season best time of 1:00.36 to snare the 16th and final spot at night. And similarly to the 500, the Mountaineers' LynDea Turner was one place shy of returning, posting the 17th-fastest time of 1:00.39.

The Mountaineers will have two swimmers in the championship heat of the 100 breaststroke and another in the consolation heat of the event.

Leah Wagner finished her prelims swim in a career-best 1:05.78 to earn the seventh seed at night, and she will be joined in the championship heat by Trinity Caudle whose eighth-place time of 1:05.80 was also a career best.

Posting the 12th fastest prelims time and advancing into the night's consolation final is Ella Fries, who made it 3-for-3 in career bests with a time of 1:06.69.

Senior Emily Jauch was the heartbreak swimmer for Western in the event, posting a season best time of 1:08.60 but falling two places shy of 16th, by only 0.42 seconds.

Two Western swimmers will compete in the consolation heat of the 200 butterfly.

Sage Patterson's career best of 2:12.16 and Miranda Noonan's career best of 2:13.63 were the 11th and 13th-fastest swims in the prelims session.

The Mountaineers were, again, right on the edge of evening qualifying with three other swimmers. Zoe Wolfe (2:17.91) was 18th, AvaMarie Hopewell (2:19.15) was 19th, and Harlie Taylor (2:19.48) was 20th.

Along with the eight individuals who will participate in Friday night's championship session will be Western's 'A' and 'B' relays in the 200 free relay event.

In between the completed prelims and the night's heats will be the 3-meter diving prelims featuring Western's Ashlynn Mixon and Andie Moon.