PHARR, Texas (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV men's swimming and diving team swept the relay events and set two school records in a three-medal opening finals session of the WAC Championships Wednesday at City of Pharr Natatorium.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY:
In the first event of the meet, the Rebels' 200 free relay squad of Wikus Potgieter (21.55), Adnan Beji (23.60), George Ratiu (20.38) and Bryson Huey (18.94) threw down a program record for a second consecutive WAC title in the event. They broke last season's school-best mark by almost two-tenths of a second with a finishing time of 1:24.47.

Following their counterparts, the Scarlet & Gray's relay team of Cam Castro (1:35.39), Colby Raffel (1:35.07), Cooper Kiel (1:37.67) and Dominik Bujak (1:36.42) won the school's fifth straight WAC gold medal in the 800 free relay. Castro's lead-off swim of 1:35.39 on the 200 yards was a lifetime best.

Diving to the bronze medal on the 3-meter springboard, freshman Alex Vazquez scored a program-record 368.25 in his conference meet debut to overtake former Rebel Tazman Abramowicz's previous best from the 2018-19 season.

THE RUNDOWN:
*The Rebels had all three of their divers score in the top 8 of the 3-meter competition as junior Dima Tereschenko (338.50) and senior Jamie Spilchak (310.75) finished fifth and seventh, respectively. With his score, Spilchak topped his previous career-best six-dive score by nearly three points.
*Overall, UNLV tallied an NCAA 'B' cut mark in their 200 medley relay win and an NCAA Zone qualifying scores via Vazquez's and Tereshchenko's dive.

QUOTABLE: "A very promising start to the weekend. Our sprint guys certainly expressed their dominance in the medley relay tonight and I'm excited to see what they can do in their 50s tomorrow. The 800 free relay is a race we haven't lost in many years - it's a very important race to me, personally. We weren't seeded to win that one tonight, so for those guys to dig deep and overcome the odds was awesome. To my knowledge, UNLV has never put three divers in the top 8 at a conference championship, so a huge congrats to Coach Anne (Schwemmer) and to Alex for taking down another school record."
-UNLV Head Coach Ben Loorz

UP NEXT: The league championship event continues with Thursday's second day of action. Prelims are at 8:30 a.m. PT with finals set for 4 p.m. PT.

2024 Western Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships
City of Pharr Natatorium
Pharr, Texas
Wednesday, February 28
Day 1 Results

Top-8 Finishes
200 Medley Relay - 1st place - 1:24.47 (Potgieter, Beji, Ratiu, Huey)
800 Free Relay - 1st place - 6:24.55 (Castro, Raffel, Kiel, Bujak)
3-meter - 3rd place - 368.25 (Alex Vazquez), 5th place - 338.50 (Dima Tereshchenko), 7th place - 310.75 (Jamie Spilchak)