The UNLV men's and women's swimming and diving teams split a dual meet with BYU on Saturday, with the Rebel women claiming a 170-130 victory, while BYU took the men's meet by a 163-135 score.
In the women's meet, the Rebels won 10 of the 14 swimming events, including a sweep of both relays. Leading the way was a trio of double-event winners: Julia Fehervari, Stephanie Samudro and Jessica Wong. Fehervari won two free events, taking the 50 in 23.77 and the 200 in 1:53.14. Samudro, a freshman for the Rebels, won both fly events after touching the wall in 56.73 in the 100 and 2:04.92 in the 200. Wong meanwhile won the 200 back in 2:01.38 and the 200 IM in 2:07.26. Also winning events on the day was Michelle Troup in the 100 free (51.30) and Natalie Sanchez in the 100 breast (1:06.00).
The Rebels opened the meet by winning the 200 medley relay, thanks to the team of Elena Gavrilova, Sanchez, Wong and Troup that posted a time of 1:44.13. Troup, Gavrilova, Fehervari and Zeineb Khalfallah then won the 400 free relay event in 3:27.71.
UNLV's men fell into a hole after the first two diving events, and could never catch back up.The Rebels would win seven events total, with the seventh coming in the 100 fly, and event the Rebels went 1-3-5 in to close within six points with just two events to go. BYU sealed the door shut though by taking the top three spots in the 200 IM to clinch the meet, while the Rebels' A relay was disqualified in the 400 free relay.
Balint Batka paced the men's effort with a pair of wins, coming in the 200 free (1:40.81) and the 100 fly (49.60). Single event winners on the afternoon were: Dillon Virva in the 50 free (20.18), Tom Paco-Pedroni in the 100 free (45.59), Boris Kulizhnikov in the 200 breast and Joe Riggert in the 500 free (4:34.25). UNLV did win the first race, the 200 medley relay, as Henrique Machado, Virva, Paco-Pedroni and Samuel Lameynardie finished in a first place time of 1:30.19.
The next action for both teams will be at the Mizzou Invite on Nov. 20-22 in Columbia, Mo.
The BYU men’s swim and dive team picked up their first win of the season knocking off UNLV 163-135 and the women fell short against the Rebels 170-130 in Las Vegas Saturday afternoon.
"Our best swimmers stepped and and did what they needed to do,” head swim coach John Brooks said. “It was a win from the studs but also everyone else competed and swam well to give us enough points to win. Our women’s team is young and even though we lost the meet they swam hard. We’re a young group and we had some injuries but as a whole we’re getting better and improving week to week.”
Junior Jake Taylor led the way for the men winning three of the four events he competed in. Stephen Richards swam well also winning two of his four events. For the women it was Ciera Marsh Keller, Vanessa Moffatt and Haley Bertoldo coming up big for the young team.
The dive team had an awesome showing sweeping all four events. Kevin Dreesen earned first-place scores in both the men’s 1-meter (344.10) and 3-meter (320.93). Nathan Gonzales finished second in the 1-meter (283.13) and Jordan Tuckfield recorded a third-place score in the 1-meter (266.25).
The story of the day for the women’s dive team was Ali Tippetts. Tippetts just returned from her mission in August and the junior walk-on won the women’s 1-meter scoring a 239.25. Mackenzie Rands finished second with a 228.45. Rands and Tippets flip-flopped in the 3-meter with Rands finishing first (269.93) and Tippetts second (259.43).
“It was a really good day for us,” head diving coach Keith Russell said. “We had some solid foundations and their entries were cleaner today, it’s been a nice couple of weeks of practice and we’re looking forward to getting better.”
Moffatt picked up BYU’s first win of the meet in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:31.28. Luis Ventura helped the Cougars sweep the event swimming a 9:27.93 in the men’s 1,000 free.
Keller earned a first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke touching the wall with a time of 57.24. Taylor took home first for the men in the 100 back when he swam away from the competition earning a time of 48.16.
BYU swept the two top spots in the men’s 100-yard breaststroke with Richards touching the wall in 57.13 and Michael King coming in just behind him with a time of 57.17.
Rainer Ng won the men’s 200-yard butterfly finishing with a time of 1:49.59
Taylor came up big for his team yet again winning the men’s 200 back in 1:48.70. For the women it was Riley Buer finishing first in the women’s 200 back (2:22.11) and her teammate Hannah Hansen coming in second with a time of 2:23.08.
Moffatt picked up another first-place finish winning the women’s 500 free in 5:06.88.
Richards won the men’s 200-yard IM in 1:51.32 just ahead of his teammate Hayden Palmer who finished second with a time of 1:51.86.
The group of Taylor, Seth Russell, Evan Berger and Ng won the men’s 400 free relay earning a time of 3:03.7 to finish out a stellar afternoon of swimming.
The women head to California to take on UC Davis Saturday, Nov. 15, in Davis, California. The men are off until the dive team heads to Tucson, Arizona, Nov. 21-22 for the Arizona Diving Invite.
