Dockendorf wins butterfly title at Junior Olympics

Recent Dos Pueblos graduate Michelle Dockendorf won the 200 breaststroke at the Southern California Junior Olympics last week in a time of 2:34.44. Although official time standards have not been released yet, that time will likely qualify her for the 2012 Olympic Trials.Dockendorf then swam in an all-star competition against some of the top youth swimmers in North America as she represented Southern California Swimming in the North American Challenge Cup in Santa Clara. Swimming against Canada, … [Read more...]

UCSB swimming adds new assistant coach

Tim Siciliano, a three-time NCAA national champion and nine-time NCAA All-American at the University of Michigan, has been named the new assistant swimming coach for the UCSB men’s and women’s swim teams it was announced by head coach Gregg Wilson.“I feel very honored to become part of the Gaucho coaching staff,” Siciliano said. “Over the last 34 years, Gregg Wilson has built a tremendously storied and successful program and I know it will be a privilege to work with him. Gregg has … [Read more...]

Gaucho men officially start move to Pac-10

The UCSB men’s swimming team, which has won an unprecedented 26 Big West titles over the last 34 years, will join the Pacific-10 Conference for competition beginning in the 2010-11 season. The Pac-10 made the announcement official on Monday. Rather than wait until a conference meeting in October, the Pac-10 went to an e-mail vote recently to allow UCSB to compete immediately in the conference. This announcement comes on the heels of the UCSB women’s swim team joining the Mountain Pacific Sports … [Read more...]

Blankenhorn connects continents with Gibraltar swim

Blankenhorn_TAB

It’s the gateway to the Mediterranean; a passageway between two continents; an opening between two major bodies of water and one of the busiest shipping routes in the world.When Santa Barbara waterman David “Chip” Blankenhorn was planning a family vacation to Spain, he thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar?"Well, Blankenhorn has quite a story to tell about what he did during his summer vacation of 2010.After visiting spectacular sights in Barcelona … [Read more...]

Gaucho swimmers in action next week

UCSB will have plenty of representation next week at the 2010 ConocoPhillips National Championships as eight current Gauchos are set to compete in the meet that runs August 3-7 at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine.Kevin Ferguson, Ryan Garcia, Ryan Hanni, Chris Peterson and Evan Simoni will be competing on the men’s side. Ferguson will be swimming the 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle, Garcia will be swimming the 400 individual medley, Hanni will be swimming the 50, 100 and 200 … [Read more...]

MPSF includes Gaucho women in new swimming conference

The UCSB women’s swimming team will join the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, which will be adding women’s swimming and diving for the upcoming 2010-11 academic year, it was announced Monday by the conference.The sport will be become the 10th sponsored by the NCAA Division I conference specializing in Olympic sports. The women’s swim team will join the Gaucho men’s water polo and men’s volleyball teams, which are already competing in the MPSF.The initial MPSF Women’s Swimming … [Read more...]

Reid beats impressive field in 6-mile swim

Stewart Reid was up against some pretty stiff competition in the Semana Nautica 6-mile swim on Sunday.But just like he has done in the weekly Reef and Run Series swims along East Beach, the former NCAA Division 2 All-Amerian from UC Davis stroked his way to victory in the race from Goleta Beach to Hendry’s Beach on Sunday morningIn a 36-swimmer field that included several experienced open-water swimmers, Reid came out of the water first in an impressive 1 hour, 43 minutes, 50 seconds."There … [Read more...]

Reid rules Reef and Run mile swim again

When Stewart Reid enters the Reef and Run Series 1-mile ocean swim, the chances are good that he’s going to come out on top.Competing in the 11th event of the series on Tuesday at East Beach, Reid won for the fifth time and posted his fastest time of the season, 22 minutes, 46 seconds. He beat out Ed Smith (23.46), Greg Gaitan (23.51) and Chris Braden (24.12).Reid, who has won the 1.5-mile Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim in San Francisco Bay, also has a victory in the 1-kilometer swim event in … [Read more...]

Eacret wins four events at chaotic Semana Nautica meet

Christian Bridley swims freestyle.

The traffic is always heavy downtown during the Fourth of July, but traffic in the water at Los Baños Pool was downright ridiculous for the 42nd Annual Semana Nautica Swim Meet."It's crazy, because this pool's not that big and we have probably about 1,000 swimmers all crammed in here for warmups. Warm-ups are crazy. I think I almost killed one or two little kids by accident," joked recent Dos Pueblos graduate Darrell Eacret, who won four events.COMPLETE RESULTSNearly forty swimming clubs … [Read more...]

Warkentin works through winter-like 3-mile

Schaeffer

Olympian Mark Warkentin made it a clean sweep in the Semana Nautica 1-mile and 3-mile open-water swims this weekend, finishing off the 3-mile in 58 minutes and six seconds on Sunday morning.The water temperature dropped considerably from Saturday to Sunday, making for slower times. The reading on Saturday was 63 degrees but fell all the way to a winter-like 58 degrees on Sunday."It's probably the coldest I've ever swam in for that long of a race," Warkentin said.COMPLETE 3-MILE RESULTSMike … [Read more...]