REBEL MEN WIN ANNUAL UNLV FINIS INVITE
The UNLV men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams wrapped up their annual UNLV Finis Invitational on Wednesday at Jim Reitz Pool.
The Rebel men won with a tally of 979 points for a 112 advantage over the second-place finisher Colorado Mesa. The Scarlet & Gray women placed second with 785 total points, behind only No. 24 UCLA who ended up taking the victory with 1,314.50 total points.
THE RUNDOWN – WOMEN:
– Starting the night, senior Heather Gardner placed third in the 100 IM, posting a time of 57.26.
– Freshman Grace Wharton finished third in the 200 back, putting up a season-best time of 1:58.85.
– The Scarlet & Gray women collected three top-10 finishes in the 100 free as junior Erika Carlson led the trio in third place (49.94). Seniors Bridget Sullivan (50.63) and Pilar Cohen (50.81) came in fifth and sixth, respectively.
– Gathering a top-10 finish in the 200 breast, junior Jillian Moses swam a sixth-place time of 2:17.86.
– Sophomore Ava Olson claimed a fourth-place time of 2:00.69 in the 200 fly. Her time went down as the eighth fastest in program history.
– The 200 fly also saw freshman Lauren Palacios notch a 10th-place overall finish (2:05.36).
– The Rebels’ 400 free relay ‘A’ team of Sullivan, Carlson, Cohen and junior Averi Webb earned a second-place finish with a time of 3:19.61.
– Adding a top-10 finish in the 400 free relay, the ‘B’ squad of Wharton, junior Kyra Tonsil, junior Marta Klimek and Gardner combined for an eighth-place finish (3:27.06).
– In the 1-meter event, senior Vika Yanovska earned a fifth-place finish with a final score of 244.45 and freshman Allyse Abbott placed sixth with a score of 230.35.
THE RUNDOWN – MEN:
– In a 1-2 finish of the men’s 100 IM, senior Daniel Nicusan won with a season-best time of 48.04 seconds and senior Cooper Kiel took second on a season-best time of 49.42 seconds. Adding a top-5 finish in the event, senior Adnan Beji touched in fourth (49.89).
– Adding a third-place finish in the 200 back, sophomore Tatsuki Inoue swam a season-best mark in 1:45.24 seconds.
– Following closely behind Inoue, sophomore Wikus Potgieter (1:45.88) and sophomore Kyle Adamson (1:47.29) tacked on fourth and fifth-place finishes, respectively.
– Collecting another top-10 Rebel finish in the 200 back, sophomore Ambrus Barcsak finished ninth with a season-best swim of 1:48.09.
– Redshirt freshman Emil Perez added a fourth-place finish in the 100 free (44.47) and freshman Kiril Stepanov notched a 10th-place finish (44.86) in the same event.
– The men’s 200 fly saw four Scarlet & Gray swimmers record top-10 finishes, led by junior Ian Belflower’s second-place finish (1:45.90) with the eighth fastest time in program history. Redshirt sophomore Colby Raffel placed third in the 200 fly (1:46.12). Additionally, seniors McKay Mickelson (1:50.55) and Andrew Navarro (1:50.98) swam to sixth and seventh-place finishes, respectively.
– The 400 free relay ‘A’ squad of Perez, Potgieter, Stepanov and Nicusan took third in a time of 2:56.51.
– The 400 free relay ‘B’ contingent of Kiel, junior Josh Peters, freshman Lucas Diermayr and senior Michael Breitbart teamed up to finish seventh (3:00.76).
– In the 3-meter event, sophomore Alex Vazquez earned a third-place finish with a final score of 343.65.
UP NEXT: The UNLV men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will return to action for their double dual against Cal Baptist and UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Jan. 4, at 1 p.m. PT.