GENEVA, Ohio  In her second swim at her first NCAA national meet, Western Colorado freshman Morgan Nielsen on Friday gutted out a lifetime best – and new school record – in placing 45th in the women's 500-yard freestyle at the 2024 Division II men's and women's swimming championships at the SPIRE Institute Aquatic Center.

Nielsen finished Friday's preliminary heats with a time of 5 minutes, 4.38 seconds, improving on the school record she had set at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship meet (5:04.80) two weeks ago.

At SPIRE, Nielsen broke from the gate a bit faster than her RMAC swim, flipping at the 100 in 56.93 seconds, just 10ths of a second off her lifetime best in the 100 free.

She then was able to maintain the same paces from her previous best over the remainder of the swim Friday to set a new record by a little under half a second.

Nielsen has one event remaining in Ohio, Saturday morning's timed final of the 1,650 free, the event in which she had originally qualified for the national meet. Nielsen's qualifying time, and school record, from the RMAC championship meet was 17:17.17, earning her the 15th overall seed for her NCAA swim.