Winter sports for Western Colorado University athletics proved highly successful as wrestling, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, and swimming and diving are all sending athletes to the national championships in Indianapolis.
Morgan Nielsen of the Mountaineer swimming and diving team booked the first ticket for the Western athletes. A sophomore, Nielsen is making a return trip to the NCAA Division II championships after qualifying for the 2024 meet as a freshman.
Nielsen qualified in the same three events this year. She enters the 2025 championship meet seeded No. 16 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, and No. 25 in both the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle events. Nielsen will also swim a bonus event, the 200-freestyle, after posting an NCAA provisional time in the event during the conference championship meet.
Two teammates, Chloe Brown and Alexandra Wallis, will participate in the NCAA DII diving qualification meet on March 11. The top 22 scorers on both the 1- and 3-meter boards will officially advance to the national championship meet.
Dean Noble qualified for the DII men’s wrestling tournament with a third-place finish in the 149-lbs bracket at the Super Region VI Championships hosted by Western on March 1. Noble, a 2024 All-American, fell out of the regional’s championship bracket after a loss in the semifinal round. He battled back in the consolation bracket, and won the third-place match in a 17-16 thriller to punch his ticket to nationals.
Four athletes from the Mountaineer track and field program will be heading to DII nationals. Allison Beasley will compete in the women’s 3000-meter run. Teammates Emma Kjellsen will run in the women’s mile and Sammie Bretz will compete in the women’s high jump. Esteban Deniz will race in the men’s mile. All three national championships are part of the NCAA DII Winter Festival, hosted within the same week in Indianapolis.
Back in Gunnison, the Mountaineer women’s basketball team finished the regular season in second place within the RMAC standings. The placement earned the program a home quarterfinal tournament game on Tuesday, March 4. Results were not available by press time.
A women’s basketball win will advance the team to the semifinals on Friday, March 7 at the site of the highest remaining seed in the RMAC tournament. The championship game, with an automatic bid into the NCAA DII women’s basketball tournament at stake, is scheduled for Saturday, March 8 at the same site as the semifinal round.
(Gregg Petcoff is the assistant athletics director for communications at Western Colorado University and can be reached at gpetcoff@western.edu.)
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