Oct. 12, 2007
LAS VEGAS - The UNLV men's and women's swimming and diving teams will open the 2007-08 season on Saturday afternoon, hosting Arizona State in Buchanan Natatorium at 1 pm.
The Rebel men, three-time defending Mountain West Champions, graduated from last year's team All-American Brandon Nelms, but still have leaders in Johan Claar, Jonas Andersson and Richard Hortness. It will be important that all three swim well, considering the Sun Devils have CJ Nuess and Ante Cvitkovic, both NCAA Championship performers a year ago. On the boards, the Rebels have to contend with Micky Benedetti, a 2007 All-American diver.
For the women, UNLV is led by Bailey Kuestermeyer and Marina Sandback. Kuestermeyer was the MWC champion last season in the 200 breast, and had the conference's best time in the 200 and 400 IM before the MWC meet. Sandback returns as the best free swimmer, as she finished second in the MWC Championships. ASU is led by their seniors Ellis Schieman, Lindsay Brown and All-American Caitlin Andrew. Andrew is the ASU record holder in the 100 freestyle (48.50), 100 backstroke (53.68), 100 butterfly (52.02) and 50 free (22.39) all established during the 2006-07 season.
