GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. The Day 2 finals session of the 2026 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships saw a Western Colorado record broken Wednesday night and a move up the team leaderboard into fourth place with three days remaining in the meet at Colorado Mesa University's El Pomar Natatorium.

Leah Wagner just missed the school record in the 200-yard individual medley with her morning preliminary heat swim, but broke through in the B consolation final, touching in a time of 2 minutes, 8.33 seconds to break the record (2:09.31) that she had set at the 2025 RMAC meet.

Wagner would finish in 12th place overall, while teammate Ella Fries would earn Western a 15th place with her time of 2:11.03.

The next event of the night also saw a pair of Mountaineers swimming in a B final as Anna Jorstad and Joanna Swiderska stepped up on the blocks for the 50 freestyle consolation heat.

Jorstad touched first of the two Western swimmers, sprinting to a career best time of 23.98 to place 10th overall, and Swiderska posted a collegiate best time of 24.38 to place 13th overall in the event.

The evening session started off with the final heat of the timed final 1,000 freestyle. Four heats of the event swam at the end of the prelims session with the top eight seeded times racing in a heat to kick off the evening session.

Morgan Nielsen's morning swim time of 10:26.86 resulted in her moving all the way up to seventh place to earn a spot on the podium, while also surpassing the NCAA Division II championship's altitude adjusted time standard of 10:33.82.

Five other Mountaineers earned points for the team in the event from their prelims swims as Agnieszka Rudomina (10:53.17) finished 15th, Brionna Thomas (10:53.48) placed 16th just ahead of 17th place Sophia Del Rosario (10:54.23), Sidney-Ann Morris (11:00.22) was 20th and AvaMarie Hopewell (11:05.00) placed 21st.

The final event of Wednesday night's championship session was the 200 medley relay with two Western foursomes in the pool.

The A relay of Adessa Talbot, Fries, Swiderska and Jorstad placed fifth overall with a time of 1:45.44, and the B relay quartet of Cate Coffield, Wagner, Jaylen Lembas and Sarah Krise placed 12th in a time of 1:48.21.

UP NEXT
Thursday morning's prelim session includes the 100 butterfly, 400 IM and 200 freestyle prelims, followed by 3-meter diving with Western's Alexandra Wallis on the board.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS RECAP
Western Colorado's Morgan Nielsen on Wednesday morning raced past the NCAA provisional time in the 1,000-yard freestyle, and four of her Mountaineer teammates will return to the evening's championship session on Day 2 of the 2026 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships.

The final women's event of Wednesday's preliminaries session were heats 2 through 5 of the 1,000 – the fastest heat with the top eight entry times will swim in the championship session at Colorado Mesa University's El Pomar Natatorium.

Swimming in the third of those prelims heats was Nielsen who won her heat with a season-best time of 10 minutes, 26.86 seconds, which surpasses the NCAA Division II altitude adjusted provisional standard of 10:33.82.

Nielsen was selected for and swam at the NCAA DII championships in the event in both 2024 and 2025.

Only one other prelims time was faster than Nielsen's, which guarantees a final place of no lower than 10th.

Swimming in and winning the fourth of the five heats was Agnieszka Rudomina, whose season best clocking of 10:53.17 will finish no lower than 15th.

Also guaranteed point-scoring places from their times in the prelims session are Brionna Thomas (10:53.48), Sophia Del Rosario (10:54.23), Sidney-Ann Morris (11:00.22), and AvaMarie Hopewell (11:05.00).

Thomas will finish no lower than 16th, Del Rosario no lower than 17th, Morris no lower than 20th and Hopewell with at least 21st place locked up.

The prelims session began with the 200 individual medley. Western advanced both Leah Wagner and Ella Fries into the B consolation final (placings 9 through 16) as both posted season-best times in the morning – tying for the 11th fastest time at 2:09.41.

Posting a season-best time of 2:13.66 but missing out on the C consolation heat (placings 17 through 24) by 1.5 seconds was Demi Blaylock.

The second event in Wednesday's prelims was the 50 freestyle, and just like with the 200 IM, two Mountaineers advanced to swim in the B final at night.

Both Anna Jorstad (24.16 seconds) and Joanna Swiderska (24.44) hit the pads with the 11th and 15th fastest prelims times, respectively, as both raced to season bests.

Posting a season best time as well, but missing out on the C consolation final by 5/100ths of a second was Sarah Krise with a time of 25.00.

In addition to the 200 IM and the 50 free swimmers from Western, the Mountaineers will also have 'A' and 'B' relays entered in the final event of the night, the 200 medley relay.