LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV men's and women's swimming and diving teams enjoyed a strong second day of the UNLV Invitational with eight event wins - five of which were sweeps - and 26 top-3 finishes Saturday at Jim Reitz Pool.

After going unbeaten in each of the day's final events, the Rebel men stretched its first-place score to 939 ahead of Pacific (509 points) in second, Fresno Pacific (264 points) in third and The Master's University (241 points) in fourth. On the women's side, the Scarlet and Gray women's squad remained in second place (697.5 points) as UCLA continued to add to its meet-leading score (909 points) followed by Pacific (361.5 points) in third, The Master's University (126 points) in fourth and Fresno Pacific (111 points) in fifth.

THE RUNDOWN – MEN:

*Headlined by a victory from its 'B' team of junior Panos Bolanos, freshman Adnan Beji, senior Bryan Chavez and sophomore George Ratiu (1:26.01), UNLV earned a 1-2-3 sweep in the 200 medley relay. Finishing in second and third were the Rebels' 'A' (1:27.15) and 'C' units (1:28.05), respectively.
*With all but one swimmer representing the Rebels in the 400 IM final, freshman Dominik Bujak (3:53.83), freshman Mike Breitbart (3:57.39) and senior Ivan Zhukau (4:00.08) cruised to UNLV's respective sweep of first, second and third place.
*UNLV's momentum carried into the 100 fly final with Ratiu's first-place swim of 47.00* pacing another sweep of the top-3 spots. Reaching the wall behind their Rebel counterpart were seniors Michal Cukanow (47.91) in second and Chavez (48.31) in third.
*Junior Chris Mykkanen made it four straight Scarlet and Gray event wins with his 200 free victory, clocking a time of 1:37.50.
*The Rebels picked up their fifth win and fourth sweep guided by Beji's 100 free first-place finish with an NCAA B cut of 52.98, which subsequently moved him into third all-time at UNLV. Tagging alongside Beji were seniors Sam Willstrop (54.66) in second place and senior Jack Binder (55.15) in third.
*Charging ahead in the 100 back, Bolanos' first-place finish kept the Rebels' slate clean with the sixth win on the men's side. Senior Richard Szilagyi (49.04) also broke onto the podium after cutting his morning prelims time by nearly .50 seconds as he took third.
*Securing the unbeaten finals session, UNLV's 800 free relay 'C' squad of Chavez, junior Steven Butler, Szilagyi and Bujak combined to record a time of 6:35.26 for their first-place finish. The win was part of the fifth Scarlet and Gray sweep across the board with its 'B' (6:39.09) and 'A'  (6:44.29) quartets finishing in second and third, respectively.

THE RUNDOWN – WOMEN:
*Super senior Kate Afansyeva (53.69) pulled away from the competition in the 100 back final to mirror her first-place finish in prelims (53.41*) with UNLV's single individual win in the women's finals.
*The Rebels' A unit (1:38.63) of  Afanasyeva, sophomores Calysta Bartlett and Sarah Koopmans, and senior Kristina Schneider put up another tough battle against UCLA's (1:37.89) 'A' squad in the 200 medley, being narrowly edged by the Bruins by just three-quarters of a second to take second place. Their mark, however, slid the quartet into third all-time in the Rebels' program record book.
*Senior Gabby Lizzul (4:19.22) and sophomore Ruby Howell (4:22.53) racked up another pair of Scarlet and Gray top-3 finishes in the 400 IM. The former placed second - within one second of UCLA's first-place finisher (4:18.22) - while the latter landed in third.
*In the 100 fly, Koopmans was the Rebels' top finisher in third place, improving upon her prelims effort (54.61) with a season-best time of 54.61.
*Sophomore Ruby Howell matched her morning prelims mark in the 100 breast final, leading all Rebels in the race with a third-place finish. Her identical swims of 1:02.52 placed her at seventh on the school's all-time record chart.
*Posting the women's final pair top-3 finishes the Rebels' A quartet of Schneider with seniors Teneka Ash, Julia Filippova and Carissa Armijo finished in second place in the 800 free relay with a combined time of 7:26.35. Tagging in third was UNLV's 'B' team with a time of 7:33.72.

NEXT UP: The UNLV Invitational will conclude with Sunday's prelims at 9:30 a.m. which will be followed by finals at 5 p.m. from Jim Reitz Pool inside Buchanan Natatorium. The finals for the 1650 freestyle will also be contested Sunday at the end of prelims and the beginning of the finals session.

*- denotes NCAA 'B' qualifying time

-UNLV-