Rebel Men Win Annual Home Invite - University of Nevada Las Vegas Athletics

Monday, December 19

Las Vegas, NV

9:30 AM / 5:00 PM

University of Nevada Las Vegas

UNLV Invitational

12/19/2022 11:13:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

RESULTS TEAM SCORES INDIVIDUAL SCORES

The UNLV women placed second in the final meet of the 2022 calendar year

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV men's and women's swimming and diving teams wrapped up their 2022 calendar year with Monday's the finale to the annual UNLV Invitational at Jim Reitz Pool. The Rebel men earned the win and women placed third.

Finishing with 977 points, the Rebel men narrowly edged second-place finisher Cal Poly (940 points) by 30 points and finished ahead of third-place California Baptist (790.50 points), Fresno Pacific (347 points) in fourth, Linfield (188.50 points) in fifth and Lewis & Clark College (121 points) in sixth. On the women's side, the Scarlet & Gray (722 points) topped fourth-place finisher New Mexico State (547 points), CBU in fifth (236 points) and Cal Poly in sixth (176 points). Coming out on top in the women's standings was UCLA (1,344 points) - which has spent the season either ranked or receiving votes in the national top 25 - and WAC powerhouse Northern Arizona (762 points) in second place by a slim margin over the Rebels.

REBELS OF THE MEET:

WOMEN
*Junior Blanka Bokros led UNLV with 46 points in the individual standings, placing second in the 100 fly and sixth in both the 200 fly and 200 IM.
*Junior Ruby Howell tallied 39 points, taking fourth in the 200 IM and 200 breast, as well as ninth in the 100 breast.
*Super senior Teneka Ash racked up the third most points (37) for the Rebels, finishing fifth in the 200 fly, sixth in the 1650 free, 11th in the 200 free and 13th in the 500 free.
*Junior diver Vika Yanovska completed her trifecta of NCAA Zone qualifying scores with the program's all-time second-highest score in the platform event over the weekend.

MEN
*Sophomore Adnan Beji delivered an unbeaten weekend in the breaststroke with wins in the 100 and 200 breast, which he paired with a fifth-place 200 IM finish.
*Sophomore Andrew Navarro finished with a team-best 67 points behind a win in the 200 fly, third-place finishes in the 1650 free and 500 free, along with a fourth-place finish in the 200 free.
*Freshman Hilton Aitken had a breakthrough 60-point weekend, taking second in the 200 free, fourth in the 500 free, and fifth in both the 400 IM and 1650 free.
*Sophomore diver Dima Tereshchenko poured out an additional pair of victories on the 1-meter and 3-meter springboards.

THE RUNDOWN – WOMEN
*In the 200 back, Lovell notched her third top-5 finish of the meet, coming in fifth with a time of 2:02.53. Her Rebel freshman counterpart Scarlett Cao also competed in the event's final with an 11th-place finish (2:04.54).
*Contributing a pair of Scarlet & Gray top-15 finishes in the 100 free, sophomore Bridget Sullivan (52.15) and junior Malia Fernandez swam to respective 14th-place and 15th-place finishes. Senior Alexia Taylor-Arredondo served up another Rebel highlight in the 100 free, winning the event's 'D' final in 52.57 seconds.
*Claiming three more top-10 Rebel finishes in the 200 breast, junior Ruby Howell (2:16.62), freshman Jillian Moses (2:16.73) and junior Tosia Iwanowska (2:17.60) took fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
*Representing the Rebels in the 'A' final of the 200 fly, senior Gabby Lizzul (2:03.69), senior Teneka Ash (2:03.92) and junior Blanka Bokros (2:04.81) notched respective finishes of fourth, fifth, and sixth place. Their Scarlet & Gray counterpart in junior Calysta Bartlett (2:04.76) pulled out a win in the event's 'B' final, placing ninth overall.
*Bokros also contributed a sixth-place finish (57.86) in the 100 IM.
*The Scarlet & Gray's 'A' 400 free relay squad (Cohen, Klimek, Sullivan, Fernandez) clocked a third-place time of 3:25.08, holding off a late push from NMSU (3:25.21) in fourth and NAU (3:25.42) behind Fernandez's valiant 50.72-second anchor leg.

THE RUNDOWN – MEN
*In a 200 breaststroke final featuring the WAC's top-2 fastest swimmers this season, sophomore Adnan Beji (1:58.38) outlasted the league's top-ranked Jonathan Reiter (1:59.83) from California Baptist with his final 50-yard split of 30.15 for the victory compared to the latter's 31.92 final split.
*Capturing the 200 fly victory, the Rebel sophomore standout Andrew Navarro (1:48.71) overtook Cal Poly's Brian Wong on the final 100-yard stretch for the win by just over three-tenths of a second.
*The men's 1650 free had three Rebels inside the top 5 of finishers, including senior Cam Castro's second-place finish (15:41.45), sophomore Andrew Navarro's (15:46.71) third-place finish and freshman Hilton Aitken's (16:10.02) fifth-place finish.
*In the 100 IM final, sophomore Bryson Huey glided his way to a third-place finish in 51.47 seconds.
*The Scarlet & Gray received a 1-2 sweep in the 200 back from junior McKay Mickelson and Aitken. Mickelson's start-to-finish victory came off a time of 1:46.82, while Aitken tagged shortly after with a time of 1:49.72.
*As part of two top-5 finishes in the 100 free, junior Ratiu touched second with an NCAA 'B' cut (43.32) and super senior Reece Hemmens rounded out the top 5 in fifth place (45.02). Additionally, freshman Lucas Esenwein (45.30) chipped in a seventh-place finish in the event.
*Senior Steven Butler paced another UNLV 1-2 sweep in the 100 free 'B' final, claiming first in the heat with a 44.87-second swim en route to placing ninth overall. Freshman Charley Page-Jones (46.02) finished second in the heat and 10th overall.
*In the meet's final race, UNLV's 'A' squad (Ratiu, Bolanos, Butler, Hemmens) never trailed in their 400 free relay victory, as Ratiu's quick start led off the quartet's combined season-best time (2:55.44) in the event.

UP NEXT: The Rebels' 2022-23 season picks up again on Wednesday, Jan. 7 when they head to Southern California for a dual against the No. 10 USC women's team and No. 20 USC men's squad.