2024 Western Colorado University High Altitude Swim Camps – Sign Up Today
Mountaineer High Altitude Training Camps offer the most unique training experience in the country. Each athlete will receive a free camp T-shirt & swim cap. Additionally, meals will be provided & athletes will be lodged in college dorm rooms. All attendees will get to meet with collegiate athletes!
Camps will focus on teaching, refining, and reinforcing elite swimming techniques as well as aerobic-based training. Swimmers will walk away with a deeper understanding of their strokes as well as their starts, turns, and finishes.
2024 Western Colorado University High Altitude Swim Camps – Sign Up Today
Western Colorado University
Western Colorado University is located in Gunnison, Colorado at an elevation of 7,723 feet in the Rocky Mountains. Facilities include the highest collegiate pool in the country, a state-of-the-art weight room, and private locker rooms. The University is situated in a high alpine valley which makes it ideal for high altitude training. Western Swimming Training Camps are open to swimmers ages 11-18 who want to take their performance to the next level.
| High Altitude Training Camp | June 20-24, 2025 | Online | Download |
| High Altitude Training Camp | June 27-July 1, 2025 | Online | Download |
Activities
- Challenging in-water training, 4 hours/day with head coach, WCU coaching staff, and current collegiate swimmers
- Underwater filming and technique analysis
- Low camper to staff ratio
- Day hikes in the beautiful mountains surrounding the Gunnison Valley
- Dryland & Weightroom sessions
- Guest Speakers
- White Water Rafting Trip
2024 Western Colorado University High Altitude Swim Camps – Sign Up Today
Sample Schedule
Sample Schedule7am Breakfast
8am Dryland or Weight Room Session
9-11am Pool Training Session #1
11:30am Lunch
12:30pm Swimming Specific Talk or Video Presentation
1-3pm Pool Training #2
3:30pm Recreational Activities
6pm Dinner
7pm Guest Speaker/Movie Night/Bonfire
9:30pm Lights Out
2024 Western Colorado University High Altitude Swim Camps – Sign Up Today
Paul Wright Natatorium
Paul Wright NatatoriumThe pool — at 7,723 feet, the highest collegiate pool in the country — underwent a postseason overhaul in Spring 2022 with a new Diamond Brite plaster and tile pool finish installed, along with new pool lighting and new 6-inch Wave Eater lane lines. Mad Jack also makes his first appearance in the pool, added in tiles on the downslope of the pool bottom.
The six-lane, 25-yard facility includes:
- competition starting blocks with track-start fins and backstroke-start wedges
- an overflow run-off gutter system
- 2 analog timing clocks and 2 Colorado Timing System digital clocks
- Colorado Timing System pads and overhead 6-lane display
- a 1-meter, single-rail Duraflex springboard
- a visiting team locker room and a renovated Mountaineer locker room
Vickie Fellows, Head Women’s Swimming & Diving Coach
Vickie Fellows, Head Women’s Swimming & Diving CoachEmail: [email protected] Phone: 505-453-3514
Coach Fellows was named the Western Colorado head women’s swimming and diving coach in 2021-22.
Her Mountaineers compiled a 7-1 record during the 2022-23 season, their only defeat coming in a double-dual meet at Division I University of New Mexico.
The team finished in fourth place at the 2023 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), earning nine second-team All-RMAC selections. A pair of freshman divers, Meredith Clabaugh and Alexandra Wallis, registered qualifying scores for nationals, with Wallis finishing 37th and Clabaugh finishing 29th at the Diving Qualification Meet in Indianapolis.
Three swimmers, Tayla Liddle, Jordan Maruska and Addison O’Donnell, were named College Sports Communicators (CSC, formerly CoSIDA) 2023 Academic All-District performers, after O’Donnell had been voted a first-team RMAC All-Academic selection, leading eight other teammates who were named to the RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll.
School records during the season were posted by Clabaugh on the 1-meter board (6 dives), before Wallis reset that record a week later. Between the lane lines, Liddle set the school record in the 200 individual medley during the RMAC championship meet.
Fellows’ inaugural season saw the Mountaineer program tie for third-place at the 2022 RMAC meet, the program’s highest RMAC finish.
Fellows coached O’Donnell to a pair of NCAA provisional qualifying times and a first-team All-RMAC finish in the 100-yard breaststroke with a school-record time that was second at the RMAC championship. O’Donnell also earned second-team honors in the 200 freestyle and as a member of the 200, 400 and 800 free relays. The 800 relay quartet of Tayla Liddle, Shea Yuran, Jordan Maruska and O’Donnell set a school record with their performance at the RMAC championship.
Joining O’Donnell with all-RMAC individual honors was Courtney Coplan with her fourth-place finish in the 100 backstroke. She was also a member of the 200 and 400 free relays and the 400 medley relay that all earned second-team all-RMAC recognition.
The 2021-22 team also sent diver Sarah Mortenson to the NCAAs as a qualifier on both the 1- and 3-meter boards. Mortenson across the season set school records for 6- and 11-dives on both boards.
Fellows’ first Mountaineer team produced not only in the pool but also in the classroom. The squad was honored with the 2022 RMAC Brechler Award, which is presented to the team with the highest cumulative grade-point average in each of the RMAC-sponsored sports. Individually, 11 Mountaineers — Adrianna Bese, Demetra Fellows, Taylor Grebe, Emily Jauch, Anna Maurello, Mortenson, O’Donnell, Makaela Romano, Kali Stier, Megan Walton and Yuran — earned inclusion on the 2021-22 RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll.
Fellows came to Gunnison after living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she owned, managed and coached the Vipers of Albuquerque Swim Team since 2009. She coached over 150 athletes in a complex range of strokes and abilities. Ninety-eight percent of her graduates went on to swim at the collegiate level spanning every division all across the country.
On top of owning, managing and coaching the Vipers of Albuquerque Swim Team, she was also the head coach of the Cibola High School swim team form 2018-21. Fellows also owns multiple businesses in Albuquerque and Taos Ski Valley.
She is a ASCA Certified Level 3 USA Swim Coach who is dedicated to her athletes, hardworking, motivating, eager to be challenged, and committed to the success of her swimmers.
