FIVE STRAIGHT:

Rebels claim MWC Crown

March 2, 2009 by Matt Maxson 

UNLV men claim fifth straight, women fall to BYU

The UNLV men’s swimming and dive team will have to check some extra bags for the flight home. Saturday, for the fifth straight year the team claimed the Mountain West Conference Championship with five event medals, four of which were for new record times. The 273.5-point margin of victory was the largest in the 10-year history of the MWC Championships. The women’s team finished as runners-up to Brigham Young for the second straight year.

UNLV’s Kier Maitland was named MWC Men’s Swimmer of the Year, while freshman Zsuzsanna Jakabos received the MWC Women’s Swimmer of the Year title. It was the Rebels’ seventh nod for both awards in the 10-year history of the league. Men’s head coach Jim Reitz was also named conference coach of the year for the sixth time.

The 24th-ranked Rebel men began the night with a 1-2 finish in the 1,650 free. Maitland won his second event of the championships by breaking the previous conference record by more than 16 seconds, swimming a time of 14:53.08. Classmate John Mendoza claimed second in 15:05.77, 16 seconds ahead of the next highest finisher.

Nick Blank continued the record-breaking swims for UNLV, setting a new league mark in the 200 back as he swam a time of 1:45.02. Freshman Akos Molnar claimed the individual title in the 200 breast with a time of 1:55.70 while classmate Andrew Morrell touched the wall in 1:57.32.

UNLV took first place with a team finish of 886.5 points. Air Force finished in second (613), Wyoming in third (551), BYU in fourth (539.5), TCU in fifth (401) and Utah in sixth (326).

The UNLV women were unable to advance any conference records in the final day. The Rebels did not medal in any of Saturday’s events.

Jakabos just missed out on winning her third event of the championships as she finished second in the 200 fly, but successfully broke her school record time with a finish of 1:56.33.

In the 400 free relay, UNLV finished second but still set a new school record with a time of 3:20.32. Making up the relay squad was Marva Harpak, Megan Clark, Amanda Weinbrecht and Lisa Gillespie. 

BYU finished the meet with 643 points while UNLV turned in 585.5 for second. Wyoming finished in third (483), Utah in fourth (468.5), Colorado State in fifth (452.5), San Diego State in sixth (375), TCU in seventh (354.5), New Mexico in eighth (211) and Air Force last (128). 

The next action for both teams will be in College Station, Texas at the NCAA Championships. Texas A&M is hosting the championships for both the women and men this year, with the women’s meet from March 19-21, and the men’s from March 26-28.