GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  For the second consecutive year, Western Colorado's swimming & diving program has earned a fourth-place finish at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships, finishing off Day 5 on Saturday night with four top-eight finishes and two NCAA provisional times.

The final day of the championship at the El Pomar Natatorium began with the morning's preliminary heats of the final individual events. The prelims session in the pool concluded with all heats of the women's 1,650-yard freestyle – except for the top eight seeds, who swam in the evening's championship session.

Nine Mountaineer swimmers advanced from the prelims to the finals before the timed final heats of the 1,650.

Morgan Nielsen would finish with the fastest time in the event of those heats in the prelims session, posting a season-best and NCAA provisional time of 17 minutes, 28.02 seconds, easily surpassing the provisional altitude adjusted standard of 17:40.73.

The top-eight heat would open the evening session, and at its conclusion Nielsen would earn sixth place overall with her earlier swim.

The Mountaineers added points from five more swimmers that swam in the prelims. Agnieszka Rudomina (18:11.73) would finish 13th, Brionna Thomas (18:15.47) would be 15th, Sidney-Ann Morris (18:24.50) placed 16th, AvaMarie Hopewell (18:25.63) earned a 17th place finish, and Sophia Del Rosario (18:37.12) would place 18th.

After the 1,650 heat, a much shorter race stepped up to the blocks, with Anna Jorstad and Joanna Swiderska competing in consolation finals of the 100 freestyle.

Swiderska bettered her prelims time of 53.63 seconds with a time of 53.39 in the C consolation final to add 20th-place points to Western's team total.

In the B final, Jorstad would set a new personal best for the second time in the day. She touched in 53.22 in the prelims to earn her spot in the B consols, where at night she bettered that time, hitting the pad in 52.88 to earn 15th place overall for the Mountaineers.

The 200 backstroke heats at night saw three swimmers in the B final and one in the championship final.

Cate Coffield finished 10th overall from the B consols with a time of 2:07.62, bettering her prelims career best swim of 2:07.90.

Lauryn Bingley finished 13th overall in a time of 2:09.86, having swum to a career best 2:09.76 in the prelims. And Kylee Ruhser would score a 15th-place finish for Western with her B consols time of 2:12.37.

Adessa Talbot squeezed into the evening's championship final with the eighth-fastest prelims time (2:06.75), then at night in the A final she improved to sixth place overall with her time of 2:06.95.

The final individual event in the pool followed, with Ella Fries and Demi Blaylock in the C final of the 200 breaststroke while Leah Wagner would follow two heats later in the championship heat of the event.

Fries had already raced to a career best 2:26.11 in the prelims, that at night in the C consols she bested that time, earning 17th place with a new personal best swim of 2:24.72.

Blaylock swam nearly the exact same time in the prelims (2:29.44) as she did in the C final (2:29.47) to earn 21st place in the event.

Wagner had advanced to the championship final from the prelims with a time of 2:21.27. In the championship heat, Wagner surpassed the altitude adjusted provisional time (2:20.91) with her seventh-place time of 2:20.54.

Action turned from the pool to the diving well for the final individual of the championship, and Western's Alexandra Wallis had advanced from the afternoon preliminary session of 1-meter diving with her 11-dive score of 431.45.

In the championship session, Wallis improved her score, finishing fourth with 438.05 points. Wallis has posted both required scores for 1-meter 6 and 11 dives to earn an invitation to the NCAA DII Diving Qualification Meet in Evansville, Ind., on Tuesday, March 10.

Nielsen – who finished 18th in the individual high point standings at the RMAC meet with 83 points – and Wagner, with times that surpassed the provisional time standard in their events, will wait until Selection Day on February 24 to learn if their times earn them invitations to the 2026 NCAA DII Swimming & Diving Championships in Evansville on March 10-14.

Nielsen has earned invitations and swam in the both the 2024 and 2025 DII championship meets. Wallis has participated in the 2023 and the 2025 diving qualification meet.