LA JOLLA, Calif (UNLVRebels.com) – Behind nine event wins and 28 top-5 finishes, the UNLV men's swimming team swam to a second-place finish Saturday at the Triton Invitational hosted by UC San Diego at Canyonview Aquatic Center.

The Rebels ended the meet with 657.80 points, edging the host UCSD in third place with 644.70 points. They were topped only by No. 2 Cal in first place with a final tally of 698.90 points.

REBELS OF THE MEET:
*Sophomore Adnan Beji went a perfect 3-0 in his events, including victories in the 50 breast (24.71), 100 breast (53.13) and 100 IM (50.9).
*Joining Beji with another perfect individual day, senior Panos Bolanos won his 100 back (47.10) and 200 free (1:37.80) races.

THE RUNDOWN
*Contributing to the individual win column, super senior Reece Hemmens (20.17) placed first in the 50 free. He was joined in the top 5 by a pair of his Rebel teammates as junior George Ratiu (20.58) and sophomore Bryson Huey (20.60) finished third and fourth, respectively.
*Sophomore Andrew Navarro provided a win in the 200 fly, logging a first-place time of 1:51.57. He finished over eight seconds faster than the second-place finisher Jonathan Holmberg (2:00.04) from UC San Diego.
*Ratiu tallied another pair of top-5 individual finishes in the butterfly events, coming away with a victory in the 50 fly (21.95) and a fourth-place finish in the 100 fly (48.91). Making their way to the wall within three-tenths of a second of Ratiu in the 50 fly were Huey (22.20) in second and freshman Charley Page-Jones (22.24) in third for the 1-2-3 event sweep.
*Freshman Kris Matuszewski also excelled in the 100 fly and 200 free as he gave the Scarlet & Gray second-place finishes across those events. He set a personal-best mark in the 100 fly (48.39), while swimming a 1:37.82 in 200 free to touch just after Bolanos.
*The Scarlet & Gray's final first-place finish of the meet came via sophomore Mike Breitbart in the 200 IM as he tied with UCSD's Nathan Lee, clocking a time of 1:50.02. Sophomore Dominik Bujak (1:50.22) rounded out the top-3 for the event, finishing just two-tenths of a second behind the top finishers.
*In the 50 breast, Breitbart tacked on a third-place finish with a time of 25.85 seconds to follow Beji, who tied for first with Cal's Luca Gissendaner. Beji's 50-yard split of 24.71 seconds was his fastest this season.
*Leading the charge for the Scarlet & Gray distance swimmers, senior Cam Castro cruised to a third-place finish with a season-best mark of 4:27.04. Reaching the wall two spots behind him was Navarro (4:30.75) in fifth-place.
*Junior McKay Mickelson poured in another pair of top-5 finishes in the 50 back and 100 back. He took second in the 50 back (23.65) and joined Bolanos among the top-5 finishers in the 100 back (50.40) by placing fifth.
*Notching additional top-5 finishes for the Rebels in the 100 free, Hemmens (44.57), Matuszewski (44.95), senior Steven Butler (45.73) and freshman Zsolt Szodi (46.21) placed second through fifth, respectively.
*The Rebel relay squads each cracked the top 5 in 200 medley relay, including a second-place finish (1:28.49) by their 'A' team (Bolanos, Beji, Ratiu, Hemmens) and fifth-place finish (1:33.89) by the 'B' team (Mickelson, Belflower, Page-Jones, Butler)

UP NEXT: The Rebel men and women will both return home next week for their second to last meet of the regular season when they square off in a double dual vs. UC Santa Barbara and Wyoming. The meet will take place Friday-Saturday, Jan. 27-28, at Jim Reitz Pool.