Mazutaityte, Mendolicchio earn wins and ‘Dogs tie for 2nd at UNLV Invite

Saturday, December 1

Las Vegas, NV

All Day

Fresno State

UNLV Invitational

Mazutaityte, Mendolicchio earn wins and ‘Dogs tie for 2nd at UNLV Invite

12/1/2018 10:30:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Andrew Tomsky / Assistant Director of Communications

Complete Meet Results (PDF)

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Fresno State ended the UNLV Invitational with a bang as Ugne Mazutaityte and Manuela Mendolicchio both earned wins and the Bulldogs finished tied for second as the three-day meet concluded on Saturday.

Fresno State finished tied with UNLV for second place with 616.5 points in a field of nine schools, finishing behind only UC Santa Barbara and ahead of Pacific, Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, San Diego, UC San Diego, and Fresno Pacific.

Mazutaityte placed first in the 200 Back and Mendolicchio won the 200 Breast while the 'Dogs also got second-place finishes from Brenda Diaz Martinez in the 1650 Free and from Zofia Niemczak in the 200 Fly on Saturday. Mencholicchio and Mazutaityte also both broke the previous program record in the 100 IM placing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Swimming Highlights

Mendolicchio finished first in both the prelims and final in a field of 38 swimmers in the 200 Breast. She touched at 2:14.02 in the prelims and was nearly two seconds better in the final, winning by nearly a second and a half in 2:12.30.
Mazutaityte was also first in both the prelims and final ahead of 40 other swimmers in the 200 Back. She won by more than two seconds in the prelim in 1:58.01 and was slightly slower in the final but still pulled out the win. Emily Cutler also made the final in the 200 Back with a prelim time of 2:02.10 and placed eighth in the final.
Niemczak had the top prelim time in the 200 Fly at 1:59.90. She was narrowly edged by UC Santa Barbara's Heavan Quintana in the final but took second place. Kimberly Harbert had the fourth best prelim time at 2:01.67 and moved up to third place in the final and Gabbie Libang won the B final in 2:02.93. All three Bulldogs now have top-five times in the event in program history.
Multiple Bulldogs broke the 100 IM program record for the second consecutive season. Mendolicchio, Mazutaityte, and Libang all qualified for the final, and Mendolicchio and Mazutaityte both broke the previous record of 58.21, set by Mazutaityte last year, touching in 57.80 and 58.02, respectively. Libang placed eighth in the final and Niemczak won the B final.
In the 1650 Free, Diaz Martinez recorded the fourth fastest time in program history and placed second in a field of 35 in 16:54.88. Darina Khisiamova finished 12^th for the 'Dogs.
Senior Osianna Mcreed led the 'Dogs in the 100 Free, moving from the 13^th best time in the prelims to 11^th place overall as she placed third in the B final in 51.40.
The meet wrapped up with the 400 Free Relay and the Bulldog 'A' team of McReed, Niemczak, Diaz Martinez, and Harbert had a season-best time of 3:29.50 to place 10^th.

Diving Highlights

The diving competitions were held during the first two days of the meet as the 'Dogs claimed 3-meter on Thursday and 1-meter on Friday.

Quotable

Head Coach Jeanne Fleck
- "We did great and I'm so proud of the team. We still have a lot of work to do, but it was the best mid-year meet we have had."

What's Next

The Bulldogs will close the fall semester with a dual at CSU Bakersfield next Saturday.

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