WESTERN COLORADO at RMAC CHAMPIONSHIP MEET
Tue.-Sat., Feb. 10-14 | El Pomar Natatorium | Grand Junction, Colo.
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  The 2026 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships begins Tuesday evening at El Pomar Natatorium and runs through Saturday evening when the Mountaineers hope to achieve similar results of their past few years at the meet.

Western finished in fourth place at the 2025 and 2023 championship meet, following a third-place finish in 2022.

Hinting that those results, or higher, can be accomplished is the Mountaineers' successful 2025-26 schedule when it's only dual meet loss was against host and 12th-ranked Colorado School of Mines, as well as Western's sweep of the back-to-back duals of the Coaches Classic, its back-to-back wins at Nebraska-Kearney's Distance Meet and Sprint Meet, and a second place finish at the Rochester Invite behind only host and then-21st-ranked St. Cloud State.

The distance events and the long stroke events continue to be the Mountaineers' strength.

Morgan Nielsen – the school record holder in the 500-, 1,000- and the 1,650-yard freestyle events – leads a strong group of Mountaineers into those same events at the RMAC meet.

Adding points in those long freestyle races will likely come from teammates Agnieszka Rudomina, Brionna Thomas, Sophia Del Rosario, AvaMarie Hopewell, and Sidney-Ann Morris.

Adessa Talbot enters the championship meet with Western's highest seeds. The school recordholder in the 200 butterfly is seeded eighth in the event while also holding the No 8 seed in the 200 backstroke.

Just shy of Talbot's seed in the 200 fly is teammate Joanna Swiderska who is seeded ninth. Swiderska will also compete in the 100 fly, coming into the meet with the 13th fastest seed time.

Western has high expectations from its pair of senior breaststrokers as Leah Wagner and Ella Fries have been point scorers for the Mountaineers in not only the 100 and 200 breaststroke races, but also in the individual medley events, where Del Rosario also looks to add points to the team total.

The sprint group looks to get its pop from newcomer Anna Jorstad, who is seeded within the top 24 of both the 50 and 100 freestyle events, and could be tabbed to anchor Western's 200 freestyle and medley relays. She and Talbot are also the Mountaineers' top seeds in the 100 backstroke.

Team points from the two diving events will most assuredly come from senior Alexandra Wallis, who has already posted the required scores to compete on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards at the NCAA Division II Diving Qualification Meet on Feb. 10 at the site of the national championship meet in Evansville, Indiana.

Wallis will be making her third appearance at the qualification meet, having competed in the 2023 and 2025 meets.

The 2026 RMAC meet begins Tue., Feb. 10 with one event, the timed finals of the 800 freestyle relay.

The following four days open at 10 a.m. with preliminary heats followed by the championship session at 5:30 p.m. each night when the top 24 competitors from the morning prelims compete again in the championship 'A' final (top 8), consolation 'B' final (9-16), and consolation 'C' final (17-24).

At stake, in addition to RMAC points and placings, will be swimmers trying to post automatic or provisional times for the NCAA DII championship meet. Nielsen has competed at both the 2024 and 2025 national meets, setting team records I the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 at the 2025 championships.