COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  The Mountaineers headed into Sunday afternoon's last session of the Colorado College Classic with a sizeable lead and stretched it even further, capturing the title with 1,259.5 points, ahead of runner-up and host Colorado College (946). 

LynDea Turner from Western was the high-point winner, earning 74 points across the three days of the Classic, edging out Joanna Swiderska'a 72 points. Including Turner, Mountaineer swimmers were listed as the top eight point scorers at the meet. 

Sunday's championship session began with a first-place finish from the foursome of Turner, Leah Wagner, Swiderska and Makenna Lambert in the 200-yard medley relay. The 'A' team brought home the win in a time of 1 minute, 52.96 seconds, while the 'B' squad of Morgan Nielsen, Ella Fries, Adessa Talbot and Madi Zach placed fourth with a time of 1:56.25. 

The gap on the leaderboard widened with the first individual event, the 400 individual medley. 

Wagner won her third event at the meet, posting a winning time of 4:50.56, just ahead of Turner's 4:52.25 in second place. Sophia Del Rosario (4:57.84) finished third, Talbot (4:49.51) was fourth, while Trinity Caudle (5:12.00), Jaylen Lembas (5:14.90) and Sidney-Ann Morris (5:16.15) placed sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively. 

Lambert added the next first-place finish to Western's roll call, winning the 200 free by three seconds, touching the pads with a clocking of 1:58.56. She was joined on the podium by AvaMarie Hopewell (2:03.91) in fifth and Nielsen (2:04.53) in sixth. 

Zach won the consolation final to place ninth, ahead of Grace Gardner in 10th and Miranda Noonon in 14th. 

Turner moved up three spots from her preliminaries seeding to win the 100 backstroke in 1:01.46. Nielsen (1:03.51) and Amayah Warren (1:07.31) were fourth and eighth in the championship final, while Wagner won the consolation heat for ninth place, with Gardner adding a 13th place and Maggie Dean finishing in 15th. 

Fries and Caudle continued the winning trend, going 1-2 in the championship heat of the 100 breaststroke. The two battled to the final touch, Fries (1:09.20) edging out Caudle (1:09.39) by not event 2/10ths of a second. Piling on points with a ninth-place finish in the consols was Emily Jauch. 

The 200 butterfly promised to be another high-point event for Western, and Swiderska led a quartet of Mountaineers to the finish, winning the event with a time of 2:15.93 for her second event win. 

Talbot (2:18.85) was second, followed by Elisa Elsberry (2:23.38) in third, Noonan (2:23.38) in fourth, and Lembas (2:32.03) in sixth. 

Swiderska stepped back up on the blocks after the men's championship final in the butterfly, racing to a third place in the 50 free in a time of 25.05 seconds. Zach (26.11) added a sixth-place finish from the championship heat, and in the preceding consolation final, Del Rosario earned a ninth-place finish by winning the heat. 

The final event of the Classic was the 400 free relay and the host Tigers kept Western from earning one more event title. The Mountaineers' 'A' squad of Swiderska, Nielsen, Zach and Lambert were second in 3:43.20 to CC's winning time of 3:39.55. 

The 'B' relay of Gardner, Del Rosario, Hopewell and Wagner was fourth in 3:50.38. 

UP NEXT 
Western closes out its regular season with a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference dual against visiting Adams State University on Saturday, Jan. 25 in the Paul Wright Natatorium. 

The meet is the program's Senior Recognition Meet and is a SAAC-sponsored Pack the House event. 
    

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PRELIMS RECAP
Western Colorado swimmers on Sunday morning completed the last preliminaries session of the three-day Colorado College Classic by earning the top seed in four individual events, including advancing seven competitors into the eight-person championship heat of the 400-yard individual medley. 

The IM prelims were the first to hit the water at Schlessman Natatorium, and the Mountaineers dominated the morning heats. Leah Wagner's time of 4 minutes, 56.47 seconds was the fastest of the swims, but teammates filled the slots behind her for Sunday evening's championship heat. 

LynDea Turner (4:57.19), Adessa Talbot (4:59.36), and Sophia Del Rosario (5:01.80) will enter the final seeded second, third and fourth. And they will be joined by sixth through eighth seeds Trinity Caudle (5:13.62), Sidney-Ann Morris (5:16.76) and Jaylen Lembas (5:17.96). 

Makenna Lambert will enter the 200 freestyle final as the top seed, with a morning swim of 2:01.13. In the championship final with her will be Morgan Nielsen (5th, 2:05.80) and AvaMarie Hopewell (8th, 2:07.40), while Madi Zach (9th, 2:07.90), Grace Gardner (10th, 2:08.76) and Miranda Noonan (13th, 2:15.80) will swim in the preceding consolation final. 

Turner (4th, 1:04.35), Nielsen (5th, 1:04.76) and Amayah Warren (7th, 1:05.06) will jump into the championship heat of the 100 backstroke, with Maggie Dean (9th, 1:05.48), Wagner (10th, 1:05.76) and Grace Gardner (14th, 1:06.11) swimming in the consolation final. 

Ella Fries (1:09.74) swam to the top spot in the prelims of the 100 breaststroke. Caudle (1:12.34) will join her in the championship heat as the third seed, with Emily Jauch (1:17.23) posting the 10th-fastest time in the morning for a spot in the consolation final. 

In another dominating display during the morning session, Mountaineer swimmers swam to the top five seeds in the 200 butterfly, led by Joanna Swiderska's time of 2:18.74.  

Talbot (2:21.37), Elisa Elsberry (2:27.07), Miranda Noonan (2:27.39) and Lembas (2:31.16) touched the pads in prelims with the second- through fifth-fastest times. 

The final event in the morning session was the 50 free, with Swiderska (25.35 seconds) and Madi Zach (26.10) earning the third and sixth seeds in the championship final, and Del Rosario (26.65) racing to the 10th seed to advance into the consolation final. 

The evening session Sunday night will begin and end with relays, both of which Western's 'A' teams will be seeded as the top seeds. The Mountaineers will enter the session leading the Classic by 199 points over host Colorado College.