GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  Saturday evening's final session of the five-day Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference swimming and diving championship saw Western Colorado gain ground on the team one spot of ahead of it in the team standings, but the final point totals showed the Mountaineers in fourth place, 25 points behind third place Oklahoma Christian University (OCU).

Western accumulated 512 points over the five days of the championship, with OCU in third after scoring 537 points. Host Colorado Mesa University captured its fifth consecutive team title, scoring a meet record 1,325 points and matched the RMAC swimming and diving record for most women's titles.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Western had a great start to the championship session as it placed Jordan Maruska, Lauren Linneman and Sidney-Ann Morris in ninth, 10th and 12th place, respectively, in the 1,650-yard freestyle.

Maruska's time of 18 minutes, 44.12 seconds was a season best in leading the trio during the timed final mile heats. Linneman scored in the event for the second year in a row, touching the pad Saturday in a time of 18:44.12.

Morris, in her first collegiate season, equaled her season best by clocking a 19:17.24 on Saturday.

The Mountaineers continued to add points with the 100 freestyle, getting an eighth place from championship finalist Makenna Lambert and a 12th from consolation finalist Addison O'Donnell.

Both swimmers swam faster than their morning preliminary times, each posting season bests in their nighttime swims.

Lambert broke 53 seconds for the first time in her collegiate career, touching in 52.67 seconds to earn eighth place. O'Donnell broke 53 for the first time this season with a 52.94, less than 3/10ths off her collegiate best.

The 200 backstroke followed and had a pair of Mountaineers in the championship heat and one in the consols.

Tayla Liddle crushed her previous best from the season, finishing in 14th place overall with a time of 2:08.67, just 2/10ths off her career best. Liddle's consolation heat was a barn burner as she was one of six swimmers in the heat to pass through the 100 mark in a 1:02. She came back in a 1:05 that pushed her up a spot from her 15th-place seed entering the heat.

Courtney Coplan and LynDea Turner took the reins for Western in the championship final. Turner would finish in a 2:08.52 and in eighth after going out with the crowd in a 1:01. Coplan was in the few that would go out a little faster, making the turn at the 100 in a 1:00.90. She held on nicely over the final 100, splitting a 1:04.8 over the final 100 to touch in sixth place – moving up one spot from her prelims seed – with a time of 2:05.72.

While absent of swimmers in the championship heat in the 200 breaststroke, Western's Leah Wagner and Trinity Caudle were electric in the consolation final.

Caudle entered the heat seeded 14th and went through the first half of the race in the same 1:10 split as from her prelims swim. Her back half (1:116.7) was a full three seconds faster at night, though, as she improved three spots to finish 11th overall in a career-best time of 2:27.01.

Wagner, only a freshman, was the 11th seed but ran away with the consolation heat, finishing ninth overall in a career-best time of 2:23.89, three seconds ahead of the heat's runner up. Her opening 100 at night (1:08.91) was nearly two seconds faster than from the prelims, and the fast pace wasn't to her detriment as her last 100 was a 1:14.9, splitting a pair of 37s over the last two 50s. Her time would have places sixth in the championship heat.

The finals of the 3-meter diving event were the last individual event of the session, with Western's Meredith Clabaugh, Alexandra Wallis and Taylor Grebe advancing from the afternoon's preliminary 11 dives.

Clabaugh, who finished third on the 1-meter board and with her point total qualified for the NCAA Division II championship meet, was sixth after prelims but dropped behind a teammate in the evening session to finish seventh with 350.45 points.

Wallis was seventh in the prelims but edged out her teammate for sixth place, her same placement as from the 1m event, at night with a total of 351.25.

Finishing eighth on the 3m (and was also eighth on the 1m) was Taylor Grebe with 278.15 points. A swimmer in the Mountaineer program, Grebe began diving only at the beginning of the 2022-24 season, improving in less than five months to earn championship finalist points on both boards.

The final event of the championship put two Mountaineer quartets in the water for the 'B' final and the 'A' final of the 400 free relay.

In the consolation heat, Western's Coplan, Bella Gamez, Afton Page and Grebe teamed up to earn 12th place overall with a time of 3:42.07. Coplan led off the relay and posted the fastest split of the four, 54.49. Gamez and Page each split 56s on their second and third legs, with Grebe anchoring the relay and splitting a 55.04.

In the championship final it was Lambert leading off the 'A' foursome with a 53.30 split, a time equaled by the second swimmer, Jordan Maruska (53.43). Liddle was next and nearly matched the opening duo's splits with her own 53.45, handing things off to O'Donnell – in likely her final collegiate swim – who ripped a 52.51 to bring the Mountaineers to the pads in fourth place with a time of 3:32.69.

Throughout the five-day meet the Mountaineers battled with the Eagles from OCU on the team leaderboard – a familiar dual since the two programs finished tied for third at the 2022 RMAC meet. Western had closed within two points following Day 3's swims but OCU stretched its lead over the Mountaineers to 45 on Day 4. Western closed the gap to 25 points on the final leaderboard but this time around settled for fourth place in the final standings.

UP NEXT
Clabaugh has punched her ticket to the national meet in Indianapolis, Indiana, in mid-March. Wallis has achieved the first of two required qualifying scores and may attend a last-chance meet – with perhaps swimming teammates – in an attempt to add the second qualifying mark.

PRELIMS RECAP
The final preliminaries session of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference 2023 Swimming & Diving Championship produced seven Mountaineer swimmers who advanced into Saturday's championship finals session at El Pomar Natatorium.

In addition, Western Colorado has a trio of swimmers seeded within the top 16 of the timed final 1,650-yard freestyle and three divers seeded within the top eight of the 3-meter prelims. Diving prelims will take place between the morning and evening session with the top eight advancing to the night, and the top eight seeds of the 1,650 will open the night's session with the remaining seeds swimming at the end of the prelims session.

100-Yard Freestyle

• Two Mountaineers will step up on the blocks in the night session.
• Addison O'Donnell posted a season-best time of 53.33 seconds in prelims for the 12th seed and will swim in the consolation final.
• Makenna Lambert – who blazed a 23.96 anchor-leg split Friday night in the 200 free relay final – hit the pad in the 100 prelims with a collegiate-best time of 53.03, earning the No. 8 seed in the championship final.
• The consolation final should be quite the race as all eight entrants went out in 25-point opening 50s, and their finishing times were just 0.75 seconds apart from ninth to 16th.
• Likewise in the championship heat, four swimmers opened with 24-mids and the other four with 25-lows and will probably hit the halfway pads within perhaps a half second of each other.

200 Backstroke

• Tayla Liddle advanced from the prelims into the consolation heat with the 15th fastest swim, while teammates Courtney Coplan and LynDea Turner will bookend the lanes in the championship final with the seventh and eighth seeds, respectively.
• Liddle cruised out in the first 100 in a 1:03 and came back in a 1:09 for a final time of 2:12.58.
• Turner (1:00) went out faster than Coplan (1:01) during their prelims swims, but Coplan managed to come back in a 1:04 for a time of 2:05.77, while Turner returned in 1:05, hitting the pad in 2:06.55.
• Just missing out on the consolation heat was Bella Gamez, whose season-best time of 2:13.01 was 0.20 seconds behind the final consols qualifier.

200 Breaststroke

• The prelims in the event saw Leah Wagner and Trinity Caudle earn evening spots in the consolation final.
• Wagner had the 11th-fastest morning time, 2:26.82, for a collegiate best clocking. She went out in a 1:10 and closed with a 1:16, the fastest second 100 of any of the consolation swimmers who advanced with her, and her final 50 (37.72) was faster than all but the top three finalists in the championship heat.
• Caudle's 14th-place time of 2:29.98 was a season best and one second off her career best at Western. Her opening 100 was a 1:10 and she closed with a 1:19. She will enter the consolation final just 0.98 seconds behind the No. 13 seed.

UP NEXT

• Timed final heats of the 1,650 and the 3m board prelims take place in the afternoon.
• The finals of the individual events are slated to begin at 5 p.m., concluding with the consolation and championship heats of the 400 free relay.