GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  Western Colorado had a highly successful morning on Day 3 of the 2026 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships, advancing 13 different swimmers from the morning's preliminaries session into the Thursday night's finals session that begins at 5:30 p.m. at El Pomar Natatorium.

The Mountaineers began with a strong showing in the 100-yard butterfly, advancing one swimmer each into the championship final, the B consolation final, and the C consolation final.

Joanna Swiderska produced a lifetime best time in the prelims, 56.65 seconds, that was the sixth fastest time in the morning to earn a spot in the championship final. Her time is also just 5/10ths of a second off what would be her first NCAA Division II provisional time (56.14).

The first Mountaineer to step up onto the blocks Thursday night will be Lauryn Bingley, who posted a season-best time of 58.44 to advance to the C consol heat. The B final will include Jaylen Lembas, whose career best of 58.21 was 12th fastest in the prelims session.

Though no Mountaineers advanced into the championship final of the 400 individual medley, Western will have quite the presence in the event at night as three swimmers will be in the B consolation heat and two more advanced into the C final.

Ella Fries was 22nd in the morning after finishing her heat in a time of 4 minutes, 45.97 seconds. She and Kylee Ruhser (24th, 4:47.64) will swim in that C consolation heat.

In the B final will be Leah Wagner (4:40.70), Sophia Del Rosario (4:41.23) and Adessa Talbot (4:41.66), who each posted season-best times to head into their evening heat with the 13th, 14th and 15th seeded times.

The final individual even of the morning prelims was the 200 freestyle, and like with the IM, Western advanced five swimmers into the nighttime session.

AvaMarie Hopewell (1:57.95), Agnieszka Rudomina (1:59.07), and Cate Coffield (2:00.28) posted the 20th, 22nd, and 24th fastest prelims times, respectively, to earn spots in the C final at night.

Advancing from the prelims into the B final were Morgan Nielsen (14th, 1:56.08) and Brionna Thomas (15th, 1:56.12). Nielsen has already posted an NCAA provisional time at the meet, doing so while placing seventh in the 1,000 freestyle on Wednesday.

During the afternoon 3-meter diving prelims, Western's Alexandra Wallis qualified for the championship finals on the 3-meter board, placing fourth in the prelims with an 11-dive score of 386.75.