COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  The Mountaineers began Saturday night's championship finals session with a 1-2 finish in the 400-yard medley relay, then piled on points across the rest of the evening to solidify their spot atop the leaderboard after the second day of the Colorado College Classic. 

Western will head into Sunday's final day with 730 points and a 199-point lead over host and second-place Colorado College. 

The foursome of LynDea Turner, Trinity Caudle, Joanna Swiderska and Makenna Lambert teamed up for the winning time of 4 minutes, 8.00 seconds, while the 'B' relay comprised of Adessa Talbot, Leah Wagner, Ella Fries and Madi Zach (4:12.15) edged out the host Tigers' 'A' relay (4:12.83) for second place. 

Wagner led a 1-2-3 finish in the initial individual event of the session, the 200 individual medley. She swam away from the field to take the event by five seconds (2:14.17) over Turner (2:19.17) and Fries (2:19.47), while Caudle (2:27.04) added an eighth-place finish in the championship heat. 

Adding to Western's point total from the event's consolation final were Demi Blaylock (9th), Jaylen Lembas (13th) and Emily Jauch (14th). 

Lambert (54.99 seconds), Swiderska (55.08) and Zach (57.24) scored second, third and eighth-place points in the championship final of the 100 free, following a consolation heat in which Grace Gardner and Maggie Dean added points from 10th- and 12th-place finishes. 

Western received its largest surge of points on the night from the 200 backstroke, sweeping the first five spots. Turner (2:13.06) and Lambert (2:13.29) dueled to a 1-2 finish, followed by Talbot (2:16.82), Dean (2:18.54) and Amaya Warren (2:21.43) as the group added 82 points to the leaderboard. 

Wagner added another first-place finish in the 200 breaststroke, hitting the pads in 2:28.26 for a five-second victory. Caudle (2:37.88), Fries (2:38.67) and Blaylock (2:40.51) were fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively in that championship heat, with Emily Jauch earning ninth from the consolation final. 

Swiderska earned her first first-place finish of the meet in the ensuing 100 butterfly championship heat, posting a time of 59.28 to lead third-place Talbot (1:02.39), sixth-place Warren (1:04.77), seventh-place Zach (1:05.29) and Fries (1:05.56) in eighth to the pads. 

The Mountaineers added points in the consolation heat from Elissa Elsberry (12th), Miranda Noonan (13th) and Lembas (15th). 

The last individual event, the 500 free, added another first-place finish along with a bucket full of points as Morgan Nielsen led a field that included four other Mountaineers, touching the pads in a winning time of 5:24.03.  

Piling up points with Nielsen from that championship final were Sophia Del Rosario (2nd, 5:28.58), Hopewell (5th, 5:30.37), Sidney-Ann Morris (6th, 5:32.17) and Lambert (7th, 5:34.29). 

Earlier in the day in the break between prelims and finals, Western's trio of divers took to the 1-meter springboard. Chloe Brown led the way with 382.80 points and a third-place finish, followed by Alexandra Wallis (380.75 pts.) in fourth and Ashlynn Mixon (291.90) in 10th. 

The last event of the night was the 200 free relay. Western's 'A' relay quartet of Swiderska, Zach, Fries and Lambert touched second in 1:42.49, and the 'C' relay of Hopewell, Blaylock, Nielsen and Wagner (1:46.88) took sixth. 

Lambert concludes the second day as the Classic's individual high-point leader with 46 points, while Wagner, Nielsen and Fries are tied for second with 40 points. 
UP NEXT 
The Mountaineers finish off their participation in the Classic on Sunday beginning with 9 a.m. prelims followed by the last finals session at 5 p.m. 

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PRELIMS RECAP
The morning preliminaries session of Day 2 of the Colorado College Classic finished with Western Colorado swimmers earning the top seed in five of the six individual events that will be contested Saturday night in the 5 p.m. finals session.

In addition, one relay will feature Western as the top seed and all six individual events will see at least three Mountaineers swimming in their respective championship heats with five event finals filled with four or more Western swimmers.

Leah Wagner led the charge in the first event, posting a top-seed time of 2 minutes, 14.91 seconds in the 200-yard individual medley. Wagner later in the prelims session would also earn the top seed in the 200 breaststroke (2:31.85).

Makenna Lambert earned the top spot in the championship final of the 200 backstroke (2:13.94) as Mountaineer swimmers Adessa Talbot (2:15.47), Amayah Warren (2:18.28), LynDea Turner (2:18.39) and Maggie Dean (2:20.26) joined Lambert in sweeping the first five spots for the evening's championship heat.

Western's Joanna Swiderska posted the morning's fastest time in the 100 butterfly (1:00.50) and Morgan Nielsen earned the top seed in the 500 free (5:25.69).

With Wagner in the championship heat of the 200 IM will be Ella Fries (4th, 2:21.87), Trinity Caudle (5th, 2:22.54) and Turner (6th, 2:22.68).

Caudle (2:32.05) will be the second seed behind Wagner in the championship final of the 200 breaststroke, with Fries (5th, 2:34.89) and Demi Blaylock (7th, 2:43.61) joining the Western duo.

The Mountaineers will also have five championship finalists in both the 100 fly and the 500 free. With Swiderska in the fly final are Talbot (3rd, 1:02.59), Warren (6th, 1:04.33), Madi Zach (7th, 1:04.40) and Fries (8th, 1:05.11).

Joining Nielsen in the 500 final are Lambert (2nd, 5:28.97), AvaMarie Hopewell (5th, 5:35.75), Sidney-Ann Morris (6th, 5:38.20) and Sophia Del Rosario (7th, 5:38.27).

Lambert will enter the championship final of the 100 free as the second seed, with a prelims time of 55.07 seconds, and she'll be joined in the heat by Swiderska (4th, 55.62) and Zach (8th, 57.45).

The evening session will begin with the timed final of the 400 medley relay, with Western's 'A' quartet of Turner, Caudle, Swiderska and Lambert entered with the top-seeded time of 3:57.54. The night will end with the 200 free relay, in which Swiderska, Zach, Fries and Lambert enter with the second-fastest time of 1:38.39.

In between the preliminary and championship final sessions will be the women's 1-meter springboard final, in which Western's Chloe Brown, Alexandra Wallis and Ashlynn Mixon will compete.