Sophomore Standout Swimmer Fernanda Mendez Guerra Wins Rebel of the Week

The UNLV Lady Rebels had an incredible showing the past weekend at the 2025 Mountain West Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. Although the ladies of the University of Las Vegas Nevada ultimately fell short of their primary goal of knocking off the three-time defending champs San Diego Aztecs to become this year's champions themselves, they still had an impressive second-place finish.

While it was a true team effort for the Rebels, there was a standout swimmer who put together a star-making weekend and stood out amongst the stars though. Sophomore Fernanda Mendez Guerra earned the right to be named the Raising Cane's Outstanding Rebel of the Week. The announcement came on Tuesday, February 25.

Congrats to @UNLV_Swim_Dive's Fernanda Mendez Guerra on being named the Raising Cane's Outstanding Rebel of the Week‼️The sophomore collected four medals and seven top-8 finishes at the Mountain West Championships🥇🏊‍♀️‼️

Read more📰: https://t.co/GhFY0zhTU4 pic.twitter.com/NeJJVfUs4U
— UNLV Athletics (@UNLVathletics) February 25, 2025

During the meet, she snatched up four medals and had seven top-eight finishes. She also helped lead the team in relays that broke school records. Those relays were the 200-meter medley relay and the 400-meter freestyle medley. However, her crowing achievement at the championships was 100 fly with a time of 52.61 which was the third-fastest time in school history. She was just the second Lady Rebel on the team to be given this honor this season.

It was a great showing by both Guerra and the entire Lady Rebels squad who not only put on a great performance this weekend but also showed just how great this team could be moving into the future with plenty of young stars just like her. The Lady Rebels head coach Pat Ota expressed these same sentiments along with expressing just how proud he was of his girls when he stated, "I'm so proud of how our women competed. We set several school records, won some events, and put pressure on the defending champs. We're hungry to get back here next year and compete for a title!" The future is bright for this team at UNLV.

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