GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. Western Colorado's Alexandra Wallis earned her team a fourth-place finish Thursday night as the Mountaineers maintained a strong hold on fourth place in the team standings of the 2026 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships at El Pomar Natatorium.

Day 3's finals session began with a trio of Western swimmers competing in the heats of the 100-yard butterfly.

Lauryn Bingley was first up in the C consolation final, tying her career best time of 58.00 seconds to earn the Mountaineers an 18th place finish. The B consolation final included Jaylen Lembas, who posted a career-best time of 57.51 to finish 13th overall.

Finally it was Joanna Swiderska turn to step up on the blocks, and Swiderska delivered a seventh place finish in the championship heat, touching the pad in a time of 56.77 seconds.

Western populated the consolation heats of the next event, the 400 individual medley, with two in the C consols and three in the B final.

Ella Fries in the C final moved up four spots from her prelims spot, placing 18th with a career best time of 4 minutes, 41.18 seconds, while Kylee Ruhser posted a time of 4:50.55 to earn 24th place in the event.

Western picked up 11th, 12th and 16th place finishes from the B final, led by Leah Wagner's season best time of 4:37.58. Adessa Talbot (4:38.52) would finish one spot behind Wagner, and Sophia Del Rosario (4:44.712) would finish in 16th place.

The Mountaineers had also pushed five swimmers into the B and C consolation heats of the 200 freestyle.

Morgan Nielsen and Brionna Thomas swam in the B final, with Nielsen finishing with a time of 1:55:78 to earn 13th place overall, while Thomas swam to a 15th place finish with a time of 1:56.64.

In the heat before, AvaMarie Hopewell (1:546), Agnieszka Rudomina (1:58.72) and Cate Coffield (2:00.46) would take 22nd, 23rd and 24th place, respectively.

That then put the focus on the diving well, where Wallis had advanced from the afternoon prelims into the nighttime's championship final. She had posted an 11-dive prelims score of 386.75 points, but surpassed that total in the finals, earning her fourth place finish with a final score of 412.10 points.

The final event of the championship session Thursday was the 400 medley relay. Western's 'A' relay of Anna Jorstad, Fries, Swiderska and Nielsen, would place fifth with a time of 3:51.31, while the 'B' relay of Talbot, Wagner, Lembas and Thomas placed 14th with a final time of 3:59.71

The solid night in the pool and on the diving board strengthened Western's hold on fourth place in the team standings. Its 402 total points are 160 behind third place Simon Fraser University and 79 points ahead of fifth place Oklahoma Christian University.

Host Colorado Mesa University leads the team standings with 915.5 points.

PRELIMS RECAP
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.