UNLV roundup: Ban, Rebels pace 20-team tournament

UNLV senior Shintaro Ban shot 7-under-par 65 to lead the Rebels to first place after the first round of the 20-team John Burns Intercollegiate in Lihue, Hawaii.

Ban is alone atop the leaderboard, two strokes up on junior teammate Harry Hall and Arizona’s David Laskin in the 122-player field, and UNLV is at 18-under 270 — 13 strokes clear of second-place Texas A&M.

Rebels freshman Garrick Higgo, participating in his first collegiate tournament, is tied for fourth with two others at 4-under 68.

Also for UNLV, freshman Jack Trent is tied for 14th at 2-under 70, and sophomore Justin Kim is tied for 46th at 2-over 74.

Sophomore Justin Chong, competing individually, is tied for 88th at 5-over 77.

North Carolina and Brigham Young are tied for third at 4-under 284, one stroke behind Texas A&M.

Saint Mary’s and Utah are tied for fifth at 3-under 285, Long Beach State is seventh at 1-under 287, and Arizona is eighth at even-par 288.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING

At San Antonio, buoyed by a third-place showing by its 200-yard relay team, UNLV moved up two spots to sixth place in the 10-team Mountain West Championships.

Caitlyn Schreiber, Katsiaryna Afanasyeva, Sydney Schuette and Sofia Carrevale took third in the relay in 1 minute, 31.39 seconds.

Also for the Rebels, Mykalla Fielding placed fourth in 3-meter diving with a score of 315.90, qualifying for the NCAA Zone Meet next month.

Ida Schutt placed seventh in the 500 freestyle in 4:48.24, the second-fastest time in program history.

Kyndal Phillips was sixth in the 200 individual medley in 2:02.16. And Schreiber, who started out as an alternate for the 50 freestyle, was second in the consolation finals in 23.28 seconds, placing 17th overall.

Boise State leads the team standings with 491 points, followed by San Diego State (451.5), UNR (433), Wyoming (383) and San Jose State (262) in the top five.

Next are UNLV (255), Air Force (250), Colorado State (242), New Mexico (237.5) and Fresno State (235).

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Junior Aiwen Zhu, who is 7-0 in duals this spring, was named Mountain West player of the week for the third time in four weeks after winning twice last week.

A native of Wuxi, China, Zhu is ranked No. 63 nationally, and she and doubles partner En-Pei Huang are ranked 60th. They are 17-4 this season after posting three wins last week by a combined score of 18-2.

MEN’S TENNIS

Senior Alexandr Cozbinov was named the Mountain West player of the week after defeating the nation’s top-ranked player, UCLA senior Martin Redlicki, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 last week in Los Angeles.