Western Colorado University track and field, and swim and dive athletes brought back school records and All-American awards from the 2025 NCAA Division II Winter Championships Festival that ran from March 11-15 in Indianapolis.
Morgan Nielsen made a successful appearance at the Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the Indiana University Natatorium. The sophomore set personal bests in all four of her events while also breaking three Western records.
Nielsen started with a school-record time of 10:19.85 in the 1000 freestyle on Wednesday. Then she swam a 1:53.51 in the 200 free for a career best the following day. In Friday's preliminary heats of the 500 free she bested her own school record, setting a new mark of 4:59.23 — her first time under the 5-minute mark.
Since entering the program last year, Nielsen has now set records in successive years in the 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle events, while earning a place at the NCAA championship meet both years.
At the DII indoor track and field championship, Emma Kjellsen and Esteban Deniz were first to compete for the Mountaineers. The pair ran in the preliminary heats of the women’s and men’s miles on the opening day of the championship.
Neither Mountaineers advanced from the prelims, but Kjellsen earned second-team All-American honors by placing 15th overall with her time of 4:52.23. Deniz claimed an honorable mention All-American honor with his 18th-place time of 4:13.41.
Sammie Bretz earned an All-American second-team award in the women’s high jump, placing 14th by clearing a final height of 1.67 meters, and Allison Beasley picked up a second-team All-American award in the women’s 3,000-meter run with her 13th-place, season-best time of 9:35.90.
(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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