The UNLV men's swimming and diving team set a new conference record to highlight action on Wednesday night at the first day of action at the 2014 Western Athletic Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, held at the Palo Alto Aquatic Center. Only 10 points separate the top four teams, as UNLV stands in fourth place with 94 points, while Wyoming holds the first day lead with 104.
UNLV easily won the night's first event, the 200 medley relay, in a NCAA 'A' automatic and new WAC and UNLV record time of 1:25.33. That was almost a full two seconds ahead of the runner-up team from Grand Canyon. Making up the record relay squad was Henrique Machado, David Szele, Dillon Virva and Guilherme Passos.
The diving events have not been big scorers for the Rebels over their current championship run, which has Wednesday's results as a pleasant surprise for the team. Sophomore Lucas James posted the top two scores of his career, 312 in the prelims to reach the night finals, and then a 305.2 to earn a fourth place finish. Spenser Sullivan also scored, taking 12th with a score of 270.35, giving UNLV 20 total points in the event.
UNLV just narrowly missed a second relay title of the night, as it was out-touched at the wall by Wyoming by just .16 seconds. The Rebels still turned in a new school record time of 6:24.40, which is also a NCAA 'B' time. Tom Paco-Pedroni, Samuel Lameynardie, Balint Batka and Giacomo Gremizzi comprised that relay team.
The four-day meet continues on Friday before concluding on Saturday night.
2014 Western Athletic Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships
Palo Alto Aquatic Center
San Antonio, Texas
Wednesday, February 26
First Day Results
Team Scoring
1. Wyoming - 104
2. North Dakota - 102
3. Air Force - 100
4. UNLV - 94
5. Bakersfield - 71
6. Grand Canyon - 64
7. Seattle - 48
