ROCHESTER, Minn.  Behind Morgan Nielsen's win in the 200-yard freestyle and Ella Fries' second place in the 100 breaststroke, Western Colorado on Friday night moved up two spots in the team standings into second place, trailing only host and 21st-ranked St. Cloud State.

After the 200 free relay opened the evening's championship session with a seventh-place finish, Western picked up points in the 400 individual medley, led by Leah Wagner's eighth place in the championship heat in a time of 4 minutes, 49.96 seconds.

The Mountaineers added points from the B consolation final with Sophia Del Rosario (4:42.84) winning the heat to finish ninth overall, while Fries (4:50.79) was 12th overall and Kylee Ruhser (4:54.33) placed 15th.

The 200 free promised to add points to the Western team total as three Mountaineers were in the championship final and one more swam in the B final.

Nielsen, with her second win of the meet, touched first in the A final, posting a time of 1:54.91. Adding big points for Western were third- and fourth-place finishers Brionna Thomas (1:55.99) and Agnieszka Rudomina (1:56.40). Cate Coffield (1:59.33) added a 13th place from the B final.

Fries and Wagner teamed up in the championship final of the 100 breaststroke, with Fries (1:05.35) earning second place and Wagner (1:07.55) taking eighth. From the C final, Iliana Chavez (1:09.01) scored a 17th-place overall finish to add more points for Western.

The final individual swimming event of the night, the 100 backstroke, also saw a pair of Mountaineers in the championship final, with another pair racing in the B final.

Anna Jorstad would take sixth with a time of 59.15 seconds in the A final, just ahead of seventh-place Adessa Talbot (59.35). Lauryn Bingley (59.83) and Thomas (1:00.48) contributed 10th and 12th place finishes from the B consols.

The Mountaineers closed the session with their best relay finish of the first two days of the meet, racing to third place in the 400 medley relay with the quartet of Jorstad, Fries, Joanna Swiderska and Nielsen combining for a time of 3:55.43.

The Invite concludes Saturday with prelims beginning at 8 a.m. MT and the finals session starting at 3 p.m. MT.

PRELIMINARIES RECAP
The morning preliminary heats on Day 2 of the Rochester Invitational will send seven Western Colorado swimmers into Friday night's championship heats in their respective events, with a total of 12 Mountaineers qualifying for the evening session.

Western entered the second day of the three-day invite at the Rochester (Minn.) Rec. Center in fourth place in the team standings after Thursday night's finals session, during which Morgan Nielsen captured the individual title in the 500-yard freestyle.

400 individual medley – Leah Wagner will swim in the championship heat for Western after posting the eighth-fastest time in the prelims, finishing in 4 minutes, 44.11 seconds. The Mountaineers will have three swimmers competing in the B consolation final with Sophia Del Rosario (4:44.81), Kylee Ruhser (4:50.23) and Ella Fries (4:51.54) posting the 10th, 12th and 15th fastest prelims times.

200 freestyle – Nielsen will head into the championship heat as the top seed, after posting a time of 1:55.31 in the prelim heats. She'll be joined in the championship final by Brionna Thomas (5th, 1:56.31) and Agnieszka Rudomina (7th, 1:57.74), with Cate Coffield (2:00.15) in the B final with the 15th fastest morning swim.

100 breaststroke – Fries and Wagner will step up onto the blocks of the championship final after Fries (1:05.76) posted the second fastest prelims time and Wagner (1:07.69) posted the eighth fastest time. Liliana Chavez will make her first appearance in the evening sessions, her time of 1:09.84 the 22nd fastest, lifting her into the C consolation final.

100 backstroke – Anna Jorstad and Adessa Talbot qualified for the championship final Friday night, Jorstad's time of 58.96 seconds the No. 6 seed and Talbot's time of 59.04 the seventh seed. Thomas (12th, 59.87) will swim in the B final along with Lauryn Bingley (15th, 1:00.15).

The setup and rules of the Invite bring back 32 swimmers from the prelims session into the finals session with the championship A final and the consolation B and C finals scoring points. A caveat to advancing into the finals is a restriction of only four swimmers from a team advancing into the respective heats at night.

This stipulation eliminated several Mountaineers from advancing into scoring heats, including Jaylen Lembas  and Elizabeth Sagunsky in the 400 IM, Danika Lambert and AvaMarie Hopewell in the 200 free, and Sarah Krise and Nielsen in the 100 back.

The preliminary session also includes the 1-meter diving event on Friday. Alexandra Wallis will compete in the 11-dive event with the field cut to 16 after the six optional dives, with that group completing the prelims with the five voluntaries. Only the top eight from that group will advance into the night's finals session, which will begin at 4 p.m. MT with the 200 free relays and conclude with the 400 medley relays.