June 20, 2000

LAS VEGAS - Sophomore swimmers Lorena Diaconescu and Jacint Simon will be participating in the 2000 Olympics held in Sydney, Australia.

Diaconescu will represent her native country of Romania in the 400 and 800-freestyle relay squads and in the 100-freestyle. Simon will swim for the Hungarian team on the 800-freestyle relay team and possibly the 200-freestyle.

Simon is the top freestyle swimmer for the Rebels and helped lead UNLV to a second-place finish in the Mountain West Championships and to an all-time high ranking of 25th in the NCAA Championships.

He was the MWC Male Swimmer of the Year, three-time conference champion in the 200, 500-freestyle and 200-butterfly, and became the first athlete to reach All-America status in three events in one year. Simon set three individual school records in the 200, 500, and 1,000-freestyle and anchored the 400-freestyle relay team that set another.

Diaconescu was named MWC Female Swimmer of the Year, became the second-highest ranking female All-American in UNLV history with a fifth-place finish in the 200-freestyle, and was a three-time conference champion in the 100, 200, and 500-freestyle. She also set three individual school records in the 100, 200, and 500-freestyle and anchored the 200 and 400-medley relay teams that set records as well.

This marks Diaconescu's second Olympics of her career. In 1996, her 800-freestyle relay team finished 7th.

1999 All-American Andrew Livingston, who red-shirted this past season to pursue Olympic trials, will represent Puerto Rico in the butterfly events and UNLV alumnus Mike Mintenko will swim for the Canadian team.