The Nevada women and Pacific men took home the UNLV Winter Invitational titles on Saturday.
UNLV Press Release
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) – UNLV swimming and diving closes out the three-day UNLV Winter Invite meet with a third-place finish with women holding 679 points and men posting 741 points, respectively. Nevada, Reno women took first with 890 points and Pacific on the men’s side with 1082 points.
In the night’s first individual event, Josefine Hippi earned a fifth-place finish in the 1650 free with a time of 17:21.39. Ethan Klein earned a second-place finish with a time of 16:07.36.
Three of the Rebel women finished top eight in the women’s 100 IM. Ida Schutt (57.51) posting a third-place finish. Sophia Carnevale (58.48) was sixth and Goezde Tekin (59.45) seventh. Two of the Rebel men finished in the top eight of the same event with Tom Paco-Pedroni posting a runner-up finish with a time of 50:45. Francois Van Wynsberghe finishes seventh with a time of 52.42.
Junior Kyndal Phillips took a third-place finish in the women’s 200 back with a time of 1:59.86. In the men’s race, Forrest Beesley earned a second-place finish with a time of 1:49.84 and JP Piotrowski in fourth-place with a time of 1:52.07.
The night’s first Rebel win came from Paco-Pedroni in the 100 free touching the wall in 43.21. Or Sabatier finished in 44.98 to post a fifth-place mark. Schutt was the top finisher for the women with a time of 52.08.
UNLV went third and fourth in the women’s 200 breast with Carnevale finishing 2:15.96 and Kristina Hendrick with a time of 2:17.76. Van Wynsberghe posted a seventh place finish of 2:04.23 for the men.
The Rebels tacked on two more wins of the night with Kimberly Hendrick touching the wall in 2:02.35 for the 200 fly. Tekin also finished in the top eight with a time of 2:07.63. Avi Cohen touches the wall first for the men with a time of 1:49.06. Christopher Havton earned a sixth-place finish with a time of 1:52.53.
The night closed out on a 400 free relay. Carnevale, Phillips, Henrick, and Schutt finished fourth in 3:24.95.
There was no diving action taken place on day three of the event.
The Rebels will be back in action in the new year taking on Grand Canyon and Cal Baptist on January 7.
Pacific Press Release
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - With four new program records over the first two days, the Tigers added more to that, breaking two more records on the final day of the UNLV Invitational. Whitney Jorgensen set her second school record of the weekend when she swam a 2:14.81 in the 200 Breast to break a record set in 2001. She also set the Pacific record in the 200 IM this weekend.
Vaiva Gimbutyte broke the school record in the 100 Free with her time of 49.53, besting the previous record, which was set in 2003, by half a second.
Thanks in large part to the record-setting swims, the Tigers finished the three-day invite in first on the men's side, defeating second-place California Baptist 1082-818. On the women's side, the Tigers took second, trailing Nevada just 890-834 despite multiple diving events.
Pacific swept the 100 IM today to help along their point total, with Kenna Ramey and Yahav Shahaf each winning. Ramey swam a 56.90 for the women while Shahaf put up a 49.89.
The Tigers also won the men's 400 Free Relay and took second in the women's. Mitchell Ongstad, Lane Goedhart, Miles MacKenzie, and Shahaf swam a 2:54.58 for the men while Jillian Hatch, Becca Aguilar, Ramey, and Gimbutyte swam a 3:22.37 and finished just three-tenths of a second behind Nevada.
In addition to the program records, Pacific put up four other season-best times today. Brigid McNally set a new mark for 2017 with her 17:19.03 time in the 1650 Free. Taylor Hosmer's second-place 2:02.80 in the 200 Fly was another season-best for the Tigers. Finally, Curtis Klein swam a 1:46.92 in the 200 Back to win the event by three full seconds.
Ongstad and Goedhart also placed in their individual event en route to season-bests. Ongstad edged out Goedhart for second in the 100 Free with his 43.45 while Goedhart swam a 44.44. Both of those times were faster than any other Tiger had swam in the 100 Free this year.
The next meet for Pacific will be on January 6 when the men's team heads to the bay to take on Stanford. The women's team will next be in action on January 14 at Cal Poly in a dual meet.
Fresno Pacific Press Release
LAS VEGAS – Fresno Pacific wrapped up a successful UNLV Winter Invite on Saturday evening with two school records and multiple event victories. The three-day meet also featured 120 individual swim or relay split lifetime bests, six wins, 16 new individual NCAA B-cuts and 18 new times in the top-five in program history.
"This evening was a great way to finish out the meet," said head coach Josh Christensen. "We had three event wins, two school records and we scared a relay record. This group has done things the right way all semester and it's nice to see this type of payoff and sign that we're headed in the right direction. We're going to get back to work and use the information from this meet to help us get better as we move towards conference and NCAA's."
Freshman Laura Fornshell highlighted the day for the women's team. She won the 1650 freestyle with a record time of 17:03.09 (B-cut), more than five seconds ahead of the next finisher. She moves to the top of the FPU record book in first with the time, while her 1000 split of 10:18.62 tops the record book as well.
Daria Belova picked up the other victory for the women's team, as she won the 200 breaststroke with a touch of 2:14.44 (B-cut).
The Sunbirds also has several individual highlights during the finals. Olga Melnikova was sixth in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:05.73, Samantha Woo placed eighth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.90 and Bavindeep Basra was fifth in the 200 butterfly at 2:05.71 (B-cut).
The 400 free relay of Woo, Olivia Hynes, Matlyn Morris and Laura Fornshell went 3:26.09 to end the meet, which was just off of the school record and currently third in NCAA DII.
The Sunbirds placed fourth in the team rankings with 574 points. FPU finished ahead of California Baptist, which marks the first time in program history. Nevada won the Winter Invite with 890 points.
For the men, Maxim Shcherbakov highlighted the day and won the 200 breast with a touch of 1:59.08 (B-cut). Teammates Alex Shibata was fourth at 2:03.98 (fifth quickest all-time at FPU) and Matheus Misquito placed fifth at 2:04.13 in the event.
Collin Moore placed third in the 1650 free at 16:10.18 and also took third in the 200 fly with a time of 1:51.13 (B-cut) to give FPU a well-rounded evening, while Kyle Jones took third in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:52.07, which is good for fifth quickest all-time at FPU.
The men placed fourth with 677 points, while Pacific took home the win with 1,082 points.
