KEARNEY, Neb.  Western Colorado swimming captured the team title Friday at the Nebraska-Kearny Distance Meet, surpassing meet records five times along the way in more than doubling up the host Lopers in the team standings.

The Mountaineers accumulated 762 points to easily outpace their hosts, who finished second with 296.5 points.

Morgan Nielsen broke the first UNK Distance Meet record, swimming to a time of 2 minutes, 8.21 seconds in an early heat of the 200-yard backstroke to surpass the previous record of 2:08.34.

The record lasted only a few minutes, though, as teammate Lily Rosh would follow up Nielsen's swim by winning the event with a new record time of 2:08.09.

Meet records continued to fall with the next event as Kayla Knifong posted a winning time of 2:27.76 in the 200 breaststroke to surpass the previous record (2:28.68), while teammate Mia Brown also bested the old mark in placing second with a time of 2:28.32.

The 1-2 finish by Knifong and Brown wasn't the first of the day for Western, as Adessa Talbot and Jaylen Lembas achieved that feat two events earlier in the 200 butterfly. Talbot touched first in 2:11.48 with Lembas (2:15.88) finishing in second.

It also wasn't the last of the day at Western took the top five places in the penultimate event of the meet schedule, the 1,650 free, then went 1-2-3 in the final event, the 1,000 free.

The same three Mountaineers hit the pads in the same order in both of those events with Maggie Hansel (17:42.12) earning first in the 1,650, followed by Nielsen (17:48.92) and Brionna Thomas (18:23.41).

And after the men's 1,650, the same three Mountaineers swept the top three spots in the 1,000, won by Hansel (10:45.19), with Nielsen (10:48.00) and Thomas (10:56.90) in tow.

Hansel's time in the 1,650 not only captured the event title at the meet, but now ranks third in NCAA Division II time rankings, with Nielsen's time right behind in fourth nationally.

While not first-place finishes, Western rang up points in the 50 backstroke and the 50 breaststroke events.

Anna Jorstad, Sarah Krise and Tate Lanham finished second, third and fourth in the sprint backstroke race, and Reiya Samant and Knifong were second and third in the short breaststroke race.

Also claiming a second-place finish was Madi McFadden in the 400 individual medley.

UP NEXT
Western will try to sweep the weekend for the third consecutive year at Kearney, heading into Saturday's prelims/finals UNK Sprint Meet that begins at 7:30 a.m. MT.