PHARR, Texas (UNLVRebels.com) – UNLV men's swimming and diving grabbed four more gold medals as part of a nine-medal finals session on Friday's third day of the WAC Championships at City of Pharr Natatorium.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY:
Junior Mike Breitbart captured his first career WAC title in the 400 IM while recording the third-fastest time in program history with a 3:47.37. It was the Rebels' first conference gold in the event since 2013 when Giacomo Gremizzi won the MPSF hardware.

In the very next event, senior George Ratiu wasted no time in taking home his second career individual champion honor in the 100 fly with a finishing time of 46.21 seconds. He is the Scarlet & Gray's seventh swimmer to become a multiple-time league champion in the event.

Riding the wave of his Rebel teammates, junior Adnan Beji splashed his way to a repeat as the WAC 100 breast champion with a time of 52.70. The victory marked the fourth consecutive season that a Rebel came away with the league title in the event.

Adding the squad's fourth relay gold of the meet, the Rebel relay team of Wikus Potgieter (47.08), Beji (52.24), Ratiu (45.68) and Bryson Huey (43.18) won the program's second straight 400 medley relay (3:08.18) title by a 2.3-second margin.

By the end of the busy day, UNLV surged further ahead as the leader in the team standings with 681 points and a 192-point advantage.

THE RUNDOWN:
*Closely behind Breitbart in the 400 IM, redshirt freshman Colby Raffel (3:49.56) collected the silver medal with the fifth-fastest time in school history.
*On the diving platform, junior Dima Tereshchenko hopped onto the podium with the bronze finish. He came within two points of the program record with a final score of 342.85.
*Notching two more top-8 finishes on the diving platform, senior Jamie Spilchak (322.10) threw together new personal records in the event prelims and finals, finishing fifth overall. Freshman Alex Vazquez rounded out that list with a seventh-place finish (302.75) as the diving trio each earned NCAA Zone qualifying scores.
*After swimming the top finals qualifying time during prelims, senior Cam Castro swam 1.01 seconds faster en route to the silver medal in the 200 free. His medal came just moments after freshman Ambrus Barcsak set the tone with a  'C' heat victory on a career-best time of 1:36.65 for a 17th-place finish.
*The Rebels' freshman duo of Wikus Potgieter and Tatsuki Inoue made the podium in the 100 back as the former backed into the silver medal and the latter bronze. Potgieter dropped his prelims time to finish in 47.01 seconds, while Inoue (47.21) moved into fifth all-time in the UNLV record book.
*Along with Beji in the 100 breast top final, freshman Nate Thomason followed up his personal-best time in the prelims with another improvement to take fifth (54.02).
*Potgieter (47.24) and Huey (47.30) provided additional points in the 100 fly's 'A' final, placing fourth and fifth, respectively. The duo each improved upon their prelim marks and set new personal bests.
*Also scoring points in the 400 IM 'A' final, Dominik Bujak dropped his time from prelims (3:55.21) by 2.67 seconds for a fifth-place finish (3:52.54).

UP NEXT: The Rebels look to keep their foot on the gas and capture their fourth consecutive conference team championship on Saturday. 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
Friday, March 1
Day 3 Results

Top-8 Finishes
400 IM - 1st place - 3:47.37 (Michael Breitbart), 2nd place - 3:49.56 (Colby Raffel), 5th place - 3:52.54 (Dominik Bujak)
100 Fly - 1st place - 46.21 (George Ratiu), 4th place - 47.24 (Wikus Potgieter), 5th place - 47.30 (Bryson Huey)
200 Free - 2nd place - 1:35.42 (Cam Castro)
100 Breast - 1st place - 52.70 (Adnan Beji), 5th place - 54.02 (Nate Thomason)
100 Back - 2nd place - 47.01 (Wikus Potgieter), 3rd place - 47.21 (Tatsuki Inoue)
Platform - 3rd place - 342.85 (Dima Tereshchenko), 5th place - 322.10 (Jamie Spilchak) 7th place - 302.75 (Alex Vazquez)
400 Medley Relay - 1st place - 3:08.18 (Potgieter, Beji, Ratiu, Huey)