UNLV Athletics Hall Of Fame
The second UNLV women's swimmer to be voted into the Hall of Fame, Lorena Diaconescu is arguably the program's most decorated. Competing for head coach Jim Reitz, the native of Bucharest, Romania, earned three consecutive Conference Swimmer of the Year awards from 2000-02 while setting school records in six separate events. She also set three Mountain West individual records and was part of three more league-record relay teams. Diaconescu earned All-America in 2000 when she came in fifth in the 200-meter freestyle event at the NCAA Championships and was honorable mention All-America in the same event the very next season. From 2000 to '02, she won eight MW individual crowns as well as seven relay titles. Diaconescu was also a two-time Olympian for her home country. She swam one individual and two relay events in the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta and then three more relays in the 2000 Games in Sidney. Her 4x200-meter relay team just missed medaling in Australia, coming in fourth place in the finals.
