EVANSVILLE, Ind.  Western Colorado's Morgan Nielsen on Wednesday broke her own school record with the first of three events at the March 10-14 NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships hosted at the Deaconess Aquatic Center.

Swimming during the preliminary session Wednesday, Nielsen stepped to the blocks for the women's 1,000-yard freestyle.

Finishing second in her heat, Nielsen touched in a season best 10 minutes, 18.24 seconds, the 14th fastest time in the prelims session and besting the previous Western record (10:19.85) she had set last year at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship meet.

A timed final event, 25 swimmers raced during the prelims with the top eight seeds in the event swimming in the championship session in the evening. Nielsen's time would end up placing 22nd overall.

Nielsen will swim in Friday's prelims session of the 500 free, and then on Friday in the prelims of the timed final 1,650 free.

She holds the Western record in both of her remaining events, setting the mark in the 500 (4:59.23) at the 2025 NCAA championship and setting the 1,650 record (17:10.82) at the 2025 RMAC meet.