Although the home team UNLV Rebels started off their dual meet against the Denver well on Friday, winning the meet-opening 400 medley relay, Denver would go on to win 8 out of 12 individual swimming events in the meet to take a 172-126 victory.
The star for the Pioneers on Friday was junior Dylan Bunch, who won the three longest freestyle events on the day. He began with back-to-back wins in the 1000 free (9:30.42) and 200 free (1:38.76). After a bit of a break, Bunch came back and won the men’s 500 free in 4:32.08.
Bunch leads the Summit League in both the 500 and 1000 freestyles this season, and now ranks 2nd in the 200 free as well. The only swimmer better than him in that 200 is teammate Ray Bornman, whom Bunch actually beat on this day (Bornman was 2nd in 1:39.10). Overall, the Pioneers weren’t as fast as they were two weeks ago when they swam against Missouri State and Kansas, but they still looked very good in the meet.
While Denver was dominant in the longer races, UNLC remained strong in the shorter races – that started with their win in the 400 medley relay.
It continued into the 50 free where Dillon Virva won in 20.38 ahead of teammate Tom Paco-Pedroni (21.26). Paco-Pedroni would win the next swimming event, the 100 free, in 45.10.
But overall, while UNLV might have a team better lined-up for NCAA’s, Denver’s versatile roster was too much on this day. Other noteworthy performances included:
- Tim Cottam swept the breaststroke races for Denver with a 56.16 in the 100 and a 2:04.2 in the 200. He already led the conference in both of those events, but those were season-bests by one and three seconds, respectively.
- Henrique Machado from UNLV took the men’s 100 backstroke in 49.17, beating out a 2-3-4 finish from William van Dehy (51.16) and Jared Smith (51.20). Smith won the 200 later in 1:49.43.