COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  Western Colorado's Makenna Lambert and Morgan Nielsen have been voted to the 2024-25 Women's Swimming & Diving Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference All-Academic First Team, as announced by the league office Friday morning.

Earning Honor Roll mention on the all-academic list from Western are Trinity Caudle, Sophia Del Rosario, Elisa Elsberry, Halee Evans, Saylor Fiocati, AvaMarie Hopewell, Emily Jauch, Ashlynn Mixon, Sidney-Ann Morris, Miranda Noonan, LynDea Turner and Alexandra Wallis.

To qualify for consideration, the student-athlete must carry a 3.30 or higher grade point average for Honor Roll inclusion, or a 3.50 or higher for first-team consideration. Nominees must have used a season of eligibility and must have completed at least two consecutive semesters at their institution.

Nominations are submitted by each institution's athletics communications personnel, who then vote on the first-team nominations.

Lambert is a junior from Buffalo, Wyo., majoring in environment and sustainability with a 3.97 GPA, and was also voted to the 2023-24 first-team RMAC all-academic team.

She earned second-team All-RMAC recognition as part of Western's fourth-place 200-yard medley and 400 freestyle relays at the 225 RMAC championship meet.

She achieved an NCAA provisional B cut in the preliminary heats of the 200 freestyle at the RMAC meet, posting a time of 1 minute, 52.41 seconds. She would go on to place 14th in the event during the championship finals session.

Lambert also swam to an eighth-place finish in the 200 backstroke (2:06.53), an 11th-place finish in the 100 free (52.92), and finished 19th in the 500 free (5:11.33).

In addition to anchoring the 200 medley and 400 free relays, she also anchored Western's fifth-place 400 medley relay.

Nielsen swam at the 2025 NCAA Division II championship meet in Indianapolis, registering career-best times in all four of her events while also setting school records – breaking her own records from the 2023-24 season – in three of her swims at nationals.

Her top finish at the NCAA meet was a 20th in the 1,650 free, setting a new Mountaineer record with a time of 17:10.82.

She also set Western records in the 500 free (29th, 4:59.23) and 1,000 free (26th, 10:19.85), and added a career-best time in the 200 free (41st, 1:53.51).

Nielsen earned second-team all-conference honors as the lead-off swimmer of the 400 free relay at the RMAC meet.

A sophomore with a 3.85 GPA in biology, Nielsen was a championship finalist at the RMAC meet in the 500 (6th), 1,000 (7th) and 1, 650 (7th), placed 17th in the 200 free, and anchored Western's 6th-place 800 free relay at the meet.