The University of Arizona men and women’s swim and dive teams’ freshman swimmers competed in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas First Chance Invite hosted Feb. 14 and 15 in Las Vegas. The freshman swimmers got their time to shine against divers from the likes of UNLV, Utah Tech University, the University of Utah and UCLA.

The name of the game was simply giving the freshmen their “first chance” to show out. Additionally, some events had as few as one to two swimmers participating.

Day one

Feb. 14 saw Arizona’s women swimmers Sydney Wilson and Joy Felner as highlights for the Wildcats’ first day on the water.

Wilson had an early lead in the women’s 200-yard backstroke with a margin of just 0.28 seconds. However, Wilson would slip into a second-place finish, finishing just 1.54 seconds behind UCLA’s Grace Dougherty.

Felner would end up taking first in the women’s 200-yard breaststroke. Felner would secure the win early with a 1.38-second difference after the first 50 yards, winning by a full 7.02 seconds.

Day two

Most of Arizona’s competition was either amongst themselves or simply by themselves.

Men’s swimmer Camp Forbus competed against multiple races on both days. He would be the only individual to race in the men’s 100-yard butterfly.

Both the men’s and women’s 400-yard individual medley saw two Arizona teammates pitted up against each other. The men’s 400-yard individual medley pitted only Jay Schlosser and Adam Kiss against each other with Kiss taking first by 5.99 seconds. The women’s team saw Wilson beat Felner by just a mere 2.12 seconds.

Up Next

The competition will pick up once again as Arizona heads into its first Big 12 Swim and Dive Championship next week in Federal Way, Washington on Tuesday, Feb. 25 to Saturday, March 1.

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