GENEVA, Ohio  Freshman Morgan Nielsen took to the water Wednesday morning for her first swim at a national meet, finishing in 36th place in the women's 1,000-yard freestyle at the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the SPIRE Institute Aquatic Center.

Nielsen was seeded in the fourth heat of the timed final event and for most of her race held onto the paces she had swum when producing the school record in the event two weeks earlier at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship meet.

Her time at the NCAA meet of 10 minutes, 27.79 seconds, was just off her Western record (10:26.69).

Nielsen went through the opening 200 Wednesday two seconds behind her split from the RMAC meet but began creeping closer to that pace over the next 200, flipping at the 400 with a split of 4:05.50, barely a second off that RMAC swim.

By the time she flipped at the 700 mark Nielsen had caught up with that RMAC pace, slipping off that matching pace only over the final 100, leaving her 1.1 seconds off her career best and school record time.

Nielsen will enjoy a rest day on Thursday before stepping up onto the blocks Friday morning for the preliminary heats of the 500 free. She will finish her stay at nationals Saturday in the 1,650 free.

All prelims sessions of the five-day meet begin at 8 a.m. MT.