ROCHESTER, Minn.  Western Colorado on Saturday finished the three-day Rochester Invite in second place, trailing only 21st-ranked and host St. Cloud State on a day in which Adessa Talbot twice set a team record and Morgan Nielsen completed her sweep of the distance events for the weekend.

Talbot, in the preliminary heats of the 200-yard butterfly, broke the Western team record by qualifying for the evening's championship heat as the No. 2 seed with a time of 2 minutes, 7.13 seconds, surpassing the previously set record of 2:08.22. In the Saturday night championship heat, Talbot bettered her new record, touching in a third-place time of 2:06.85.

The 200 butterfly event padded Western's hold on second place in the team standings in the final individual event of the meet, with Joanna Swiderska (2:09.99) placing fifth in the championship final, Jaylen Lembas (2:16.62) adding a 14th-place finish from the B consolation final, and Danika Lambert (2:15.39) chipping in with a 17th place from the C final.

The evening's championship session started with Nielsen's attempt at sweeping the distance events. After winning the 500 freestyle and the 200 freestyle on each of the meet's prior two days, Nielsen took to the water as the top seed in the 1,650 freestyle Saturday night and didn't disappoint, winning the event with a time of 17:30.27.

Western added major points in the event with a fourth place by Agnieszka Rudomina (17:45.68), a sixth from Brionna Thomas (18:03.11), and from the prelims session, an 11th from Sophia Del Rosario (18:25.24).

The first Talbot highlight of the night came in the next event as she raced to first place in the 200 backstroke, hitting the pad in 2:05.60, while teammate Cate Coffield (2:08.80) would finish sixth in the championship final.

Western added 17th- and 18th-place finishes in the C final from Kylee Ruhser (2:11.93) and Lauryn Bingley (2:11.94).

After Anna Jorstad added a 10th place in the 100 freestyle, (53.57 seconds) with Swiderska (53.94) placing 18th and Sarah Krise (54.15) placing 19th, the Mountaineers sent three swimmers to the blocks in the championship final and one in the B final of the 200 breaststroke.

Ella Fries (2:27.20) would place fifth, followed right behind by Leah Wagner (2:28.30) in sixth and Kayla Knifong (2:28.81) in seventh. Liliana Chavez improved both her time and her place swimming in the B final, ending up 11th in a time of 2:30.48.

Western then picked up points in the B and C finals of the 100 individual medley. Demi Blaylock (1:01.45) won the B final to earn 9th place, and Grace Gardner (1:04.51) and Elizabeth Sagunsky (1:04.54) added 19th- and 21st-place finishes from the C final.

The butterfly races were the final individual event, setting up the final race of the night, the 400 free relay. Thomas, Swiderska, Jorstad and Nielsen teamed up for a fourth-place finish in the event, combining for a time of 3:33.79.

Host St. Cloud State captured the team title with 1,808 points, followed by Western (1,356 pts.), third place Wisconsin-LaCrosse (1,204), and fourth place Wis.-Eau Claire (1,171).

PRELIMINARIES RECAP
Starting the final day of the Rochester Invitational in second place within the team standings, Western Colorado will certainly add points to its team totals after Saturday morning's preliminary session, advancing six swimmers and seven event finalists into the championship heat, and also heading into the timed final of the 1,650-yard freestyle with four of the top seven seed times.

200 backstroke – Western will have three swimmers in the event in the evening session as Adessa Talbot will head into the championship final as the No. 2 seed after a morning prelims time of 2 minutes, 7.01 seconds, and will be joined in that heat by Cate Coffield (2:09.37) who will be seeded seventh. Swimming in the C consolation final will be Lauryn Bingley (2:13.67) who posted the 20th fastest time in the prelims.

100 freestyle – one of the few events at the Invite in which Western won't have a championship finalist, the flag bearer for the Mountaineers will be Anna Jorstad in the B final after swimming to 15th place in the prelims with a time of 53.92 seconds. Joanna Swiderska (18th, 54.04) and Sarah Krise (23rd, 54.81) will swim for points from the C final.

200 breaststroke – Nearly half of the championship heat will be composed of Mountaineers, led by Leah Wagner as the No. 3 seed after her prelims time of 2:25.11. Kayla Knifong (2:28.84) will be seeded seventh and Ella Fries (2:29.04) eighth in that championship final. In the B final after racing to the 14th fastest prelims time will be Liliana Chavez (2:32.59).

100 individual medley – A non-NCAA championship contested event but included in the Invite's event schedule, Demi Blaylock (10th, 1:02.81) will swim in the B final, and Grace Gardner (19th, 1:04.31) and Elizabeth Sagunsky (20th, 1:04.36) will race in the C final.

200 butterfly – Talbot (2:07.13), with a new team record in the event, and Swiderska (2:07.40) will swim in the championship heat as the second and third seeds, with Jaylen Lembas (9th, 2:15.00) competing in the B final and Danika Lambert (17th, 2:17.65) in the C final.

1,650 freestyle – the timed final event will see all but the top eight seed times – using 1,000 free entry times – racing at the tail end of the preliminaries session. At night in the championship session, the final heat of eight swimmers will include second-seeded Morgan Nielsen, Brionna Thomas as the No. 3 seed, Agnieszka Rudomina seeded fifth, and Sidney-Ann Morris as the No. 7 seed.