As newcomers in Conference-USA, the men’s and women’s swimming teams dominated at the C-USA swim meet last weekend in Houston.

The women took home their first C-USA title and the men won the invitational crown.

“The coach was really pleased,” men’s team member Luka Vrtovec said. “He said this was one of his best meets. The coach cried because he was so happy and proud of us. We were all really happy and touched.”

The Mustangs’ men’s and women’s teams, swimming together for the first time in six years, recorded 15 NCAA A Qualifying times, 38 NCAA B Qualifying times and broke 23 C-USA meet records over the four-day competition.

In the men’s and women’s 1,650-yard freestyle event, senior Flavia Rigamonti broke meet record with a time of 15:59.96. Mustangs Anja Carman and Katie Roberts rounded out the top three with times of 16:20.29 and 16:22.84, respectively.

Freshman Michael Dmitriev set a NCAA B qualifying record and earned his first collegiate individual C-USA Championship Award with a freestyle time of 15:17.67. Chris Ginder placed third in freestyle at 16:01.82, all under C-USA Invitational Coach of the Year Eddie Sinnott.

In the men’s 100-yard freestyle, Vrtovec won the crown with a new meet record of 44.05.

“This was my biggest yardage meet because where I’m from, we don’t swim in yards,” the first year out of Slovenia said. “I was surprised I did so well. I swam my personal best in every event.”

Currently, the men’s swimming and diving team is training to compete in the American Short Course Championships, hosted by the University of Texas.

The meet will host 800 swimmers, including Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps and Aaron Piersol. The meet starts Thursday, March 2 and lasts until Saturday, March 4.