LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - After adding 10 event wins and 20 top-2 finishes in Sunday's  finale, UNLV swimming and diving's men's team won the UNLV Invitational while the women's squad finished second in the annual home meet held at Jim Reitz Pool.

The Rebel men (1,348 points) finished ahead of second-place Pacific (753 points), Fresno Pacific (421) in third and The Master's University (294 points) in fifth. On the women's side, UNLV (1,055.5 points) landed only behind first-place UCLA (1,322 points) and ahead of Pacific (517.5 points) in second, Fresno Pacific (192 points) in third and The Master's University (161 points) in fourth.

REBELS OF THE MEET:

Men
*Posting three individual victories to lead all UNLV swimmers in the three-day meet, sophomore George Ratiu placed first in the 50 free (19.98), 100 fly (47.00*) and the 100 IM (50.28). He also assisted in the men's team's 200 free relay, 400 medley relay, 200 medley relay and 400 free relay event wins.
*Junior Panos Bolanos broke out with the seventh-fastest time (1:45.74) in program history to win the 200 fly and added a 100 back (47.46) victory at the meet. Additionally, he finished second in the 500 free (4:25.87) and formed part of the Rebels' winning 200 free relay and 200 medley relay squads.
*Compiling his own two-win weekend for the Rebels, junior Chris Mykkannen won the 500 free (4:25.11) on opening night and recorded a dominating 1650 free (15:27.69) win on the third and final day.

Women
*Super senior Kate Afanasyeva recorded a first-place finish in the 100 back at the meet.
*Senior Julia Filippova earned a 500 free victory (4:51.11) with the seventh-fastest mark on UNLV's all-time record chart.
*In the 200 fly, Gabby Lizzul provided the Rebels a win during the meet's closing day with a time of 1:59.04. She also moved into the top-10 in school history with her third-place finish in the 500 free (4:53.43) on the invite's opening day.
*Senior Kristina Schneider finished with an NCAA 'B' cut (22.76) in the 50 free in the home competition. She previously sat within two-hundredths of a second of the 'B' qualifying mark at 22.78.
*Sophomore Ruby Howell ended the weekend with three all-time top-10 program marks. She clocked the fourth-fastest 200 IM (2:00.18) to go along with the seventh-fastest 100 breast (1:02.52) and 200 breast (2:15.18) times on the record chart.

THE RUNDOWN – MEN:
*Mykkannen held a wire-to-wire lead in the 1650 free to kick off the finals, falling just 1.5 seconds short of an NCAA 'B' cut time with his third individual win of the weekend. His final time was 1:08.60 ahead of the second-place finisher from Fresno Pacific (16:36.29).
*Meanwhile, Ratiu also piled on his third individual victory in a 1-2-3-4 Rebel sweep of the 100 IM (50.28). Seniors Jack Binder (50.54) in second and Casey McEuen (51.10) in third were less than a second behind Ratiu, while freshman Dominik Bujak (51.28) finished fourth.
*Sophomore McKay Mickelson (1:48.13) emerged as the victor of the 200 free as the lone UNLV representative in the final heat.
*UNLV split a 1-2 finish in the 100 free among its senior trio of Reece Hemmens (44.41), Bryan Chavez (44.46) and Richard Szilagyi (44.46). Hemmens finished first while Chavez and Szilagyi wound up in a tie for second.
*Tallying a second Scarlet and Gray sweep of the top-4 spots in the 200 breast, freshman Adnan Beji won with a time of 1:57.37*, followed by seniors Sam Willstrop (2:00.14) and Ivan Zhukau (2:00.25), and  freshman Mike Breitbart (2:00.63) in second through fourth, respectively.
*Making his season debut in the 200 fly, Bolanos' finals time was just one-hundredth of a second beneath a six-second improvement from his old personal record (1:51.73) set last season.
*Handing the Rebels the top-3 sweep once again in the 200 fly were seniors Michal Cukanow (1:48.23) in second and Michael Klauss (1:49.79) in third. Extending the sweep to the top-4 finishes in that event, freshman Andrew Navarro (1:51.95) reached the wall in fourth.
*Topping off the men's wins in the 400 free relay, the Scarlet and Gray quartet of Ratiu, Chavez, Szilagyi and Hemmens won in convincing fashion after combining for a time of 2:54.96. The four Rebels completed the race 5.13 seconds in front of the next fastest opposing program in Fresno Pacific, which placed third (3:00.09).
*Finalizing UNLV's 1-2 punches in the day's events, the Rebel 'B' team of McEuen, junior Steven Butler, Bolanos and Mykkanen finished second with a time of 2:58.90.

THE RUNDOWN – WOMEN:
*Leading things off in the finals night cap, senior Camila Quineche (17:48.84) grabbed a second-place finish in the 1650 free final.
*In the 200 back, senior Kacey Kiuchi (2:00.23) paced the Rebels' 1-2 finish in first place just .31 seconds in front of freshman Cameron Mykkanen (2:00.54) in second.
*Schneider swam a blistering 50.16 in the 100 free final, shaving nearly one-half second beneath her morning prelim time (50.62).
*Posting a new personal best in the 200 breast, Howell added another UNLV second-place finish. She dropped her previous personal record by one-quarter of a second which also ranks seventh all-time in school history.
*Senior Teneka Ash sped her way to a time of 2:02.54 for a second-place finish in the 200 fly to notch the Rebel women's squad's seventh top-two finish of the evening.
*Ending the meet in the 400 free relay, UNLV's 'A' team of Afanasyeva, freshman Pilar Cohen, Schneider and sophomore Malia Fernandez swam a season-best time of 3:21.16 to finish second behind UCLA's 'A' squad (3:18.16).

QUOTABLE: "It was a successful weekend overall. Having UCLA here provided a great challenge for our women, and I was impressed with how we stepped up to race a big opponent. The men continue to display depth in all events, and that was evidenced in our relays this weekend. The conference championships are just around the corner, and we are looking forward to the remaining second half of the season." -Head coach Ben Loorz

NEXT UP: UNLV will have a near three-week break in between head-to-head competitions when it squares off against UC Santa Barbara in its first dual of the 2022 calendar year on Saturday, January 8.

*- denotes NCAA 'B' qualifying time