GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (February 11, 2026) – UT Permian Basin swimming started the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships with a school-record swim in the men's 800 freestyle relay on Tuesday night, and that strong start continued with two more records in the women's 200 medley relay and the men's 200 medley relay to cap off the action on Wednesday night. Through two days of competition, the UTPB men's team is fifth out of six teams while the Falcon women are eighth out of nine.

The 800 freestyle relay was the only event of the first day (Tuesday) of the five-day championship meet. The UTPB women's "A" relay (Ava McCormack, Erika Hajduk, Mackenzie Gingerich, Nadia Phelps) finished eighth at 8:11.28.

The highlight of opening night was the men's 800 freestyle relay, which saw the UTPB "A" team (Sean Greene, Nico Turner, Owen Putnam, Niklas Heelein) finish fifth overall with a time of 6:45.38 (altitude converted time of 6:40.58), destroying the previous UTPB school record of 6:48.60 set in 2018. The Falcons were just 1.83 seconds from overtaking Oklahoma Christian University for fourth place.

UTPB then went into Wednesday, the first full day of competition, eyeing more records.

Ending the evening was the second relay of the meet. In the women's 200 medley relay, the UTPB "A" relay (McCormack, Avery Momotiuk, Rowan McWhorter, Gingerich) was seventh with a time of 1:47.30, marking a two-spot improvement and an over-eight-second decrease in time from last year's squad. It was the first women's swim record to be broken by the Falcons in two years under Head Coach Brian Schroeder, surpassing the previous record of 1:48.32 set in 2020.

Both of UTPB's women's "A" relays within the first two days of the meet featured three freshmen. The Falcon women will also get extra points this year for having a "B" relay team, something they did not have a year ago.

To finish day two, the men's 200 medley relay also saw a record as the UTPB "A" team (Turner, Chase Alderman, Colin Doyle, Logan Fultz) finished fifth overall, matching the finish of the 800 freestyle relay team on Tuesday, and doing so with a time of 1:30.29. The Falcons just missed out of third place by .05 seconds. The previous school record was 1:31.09 set in 2019.

"We came out and raced really well this week, especially in the relays," said Coach Schroeder. "We also had a lot of personal bests individually. On top of breaking the school record, the men's 200 medley relay got fifth place, and almost got third place on top of that after the third- and fourth-place teams tied, which would have been huge for us to get third place in anything at this meet. They had a really great swim."

In the first race of Wednesday morning, McWhorter finished 15th in the prelims of the women's 200 IM with a time of 2:09.75 and then finished 16th in the B Final with a time of 2:12.19. McWhorter's finish garnered 11 points and vaulted the Falcons past the University of Nebraska Kearney for seventh place (43-36) at the time.

In the men's 200 IM prelims, Alderman (1:54.90, 10th), Greene (1:54.92, 11th), Putnam (1:55.37, 13th) and Heelein (1:56.63, 15th) all qualified for the B Final. Peyton Beard (1:59.88) was the second alternate in 18th place. Then in the finals, it was Greene earning the win in the B Final (9th overall) with a time of 1:53.20. He was followed by Putnam (1:54.21), Heelein (1:55.16) and Alderman (1:55.18) in order in 12th, 13th and 14th place, respectively.

UTPB's top performer in the women's 50 freestyle prelims was Gingerich (25.01) in 27th. In the men's 50 freestyle prelims, Doyle (20.83; 10th), Fultz (20.85, 11th) and Brannan Espericueta (21.15, 16th) all qualified for the B Final. Kell Frazier (21.16) was the first alternate in 17th place. In the finals, Doyle (20.80) was 11th, Fultz (21.05) was 15th and Espericueta (21.11) was 16th.

In the final event of the morning session, Phelps was 25th in the women's 1000 freestyle with a time of 11:39.75.

Lastly, swimming in a time trial at the end of the day on Wednesday, Cooper Workman swam in the 200 backstroke and broke his own school record set at this year's midseason meet. Workman swam a time of 1:49.94 (altitude adjusted time of 1:48.74), breaking his previous record time by almost a second and a half. At the Tiger Invitational earlier this season, Workman's prelims time of 1:50.19 (Nov. 23) broke UTPB's record of 1:50.92 set in 2010 by Joseph Sarradet.

Through two days, The UTPB men (104 points) lead sixth-place Adams State University (58 points) by 46 points and trail fourth-place Simon Frazier University (130 points) by 26 points. The Falcons' men's team has scored 47 more points through two days at the RMAC Championship than it did a year ago.

The UTPB women (77 points) lead ninth-place Adams State (49 points) by nine points and trail seventh-place Nebraska Kearney (96 points) by 19 points.
 

Men's A Finalists: (Top-8):
800 freestyle relay – fifth place – UTPB "A" team (Sean Greene, Nico Turner, Owen Putnam, Niklas Heelein) – 6:45.38
200 medley relay – fifth place – UTPB "A" team (Nico Turner, Chase Alderman, Colin Doyle, Logan Fultz) – 1:30.29
 
Men's B Finalists: (Top-16):
800 freestyle relay – 13th place – UTPB "B" team (Zane Garner, Cooper Workman, Logan Fultz, Chase Alderman) – 7:02.20
200 IM – 9th place – Sean Greene – 1:53.20
200 IM – 12th place – Owen Putnam – 1:54.21
200 IM – 13th place – Niklas Heelein – 1:55.16
200 IM – 14th place – Chase Alderman – 1:55.18
50 freestyle – 11th place – Colin Doyle – 20.80
50 freestyle – 15th place – Logan Fultz – 21.05
50 freestyle – 16th place – Brannan Espericueta – 21.11
200 medley relay – 12th place – UTPB "B" team (Zane Garner, Brannan Espericueta, Tommy Betancour, Kell Frazier) – 1:32.12

Women's A Finalists: (Top-8):
800 freestyle relay – eighth place – UTPB "A" team (Ava McCormack, Erika Hajduk, Mackenzie Gingerich, Nadia Phelps) – 8:11.28
200 medley relay – seventh place – UTPB "A" team (Ava McCormack, Avery Momotiuk, Rowan McWhorter, Mackenzie Gingerich) – 1:47.30
 
Women's B Finalists: (Top-16):
800 freestyle relay – 16th place – UTPB "B" team (Alondra Ortiz, Sarahie Barcenas, Lu-Lu Van Winkle, Gia Delgado) – 8:59.06
200 IM – 16th place – Rowan McWhorter – 2:12.19
200 medley relay – 16th place – UTPB "B" team (Gia Delgado, Sarahie Barcenas, Nadia Phelps, Alondra Ortiz) – 2:00.08
 

Next up: UT Permian Basin is back for day three of the 2026 RMAC Championship on Thursday, February 12. Preliminaries start at 10 a.m. Mountain Time with finals at 5:30 p.m. Mountain Time. Day three of the conference meet with feature the 100 butterfly, 400 IM, 200 freestyle, women's 3-meter diving and the 400 medley relay.