FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Three UCSB swim records fell on Thursday, the first day of the Husky Invitational being hosted by the University of Washington at Kings County Aquatics Center.
Junior Anne Marie May broke her own record in the 50 freestyle while also helping two UCSB women’s relay teams post school records during the event finals. The Gaucho women got the evening’s finals off to a fantastic start as the UCSB A 200 free relay consisting of Naomi Javanifard, Nadia Dwidar, Courtney Bauer and May took first place with a school-record time of 1:30.71 beating out Washington’s second place team by almost a second.
The relay time meets the NCAA B qualifying standard (1:31.88) for the national championships this spring and beats the previous school record of 1:31.46, set last season by the same group. The women’s B team took sixth-place, clocking in at 1:34.77.
The men’s A team kept the Gaucho momentum rolling as Joe Wood, Jeff Sudbury, Kevin Kuhn and Bradley Matsumoto swam to a second place finish with a time of 1:19.69, also meeting the NCAA B qualifying standard (1:20.40) and just missing the school record by .63 seconds.
The record-setting continued in the 50 freestyle when May took first place with a school- record mark of 21.96, beating out her previous record of 22.00 set at the NCAA Championships last season. The time is just .03 seconds off of the NCAA A qualifying standard. Teammate Javanifard tied for third (22.96), while Bauer (23.37) and Dwidar (23.41) finished fifth and seventh, respectively.
UCSB’s men also made their presence felt in the 50 free as they took fifth through eighth place in the event. Sudbury turned in the best time (20.08) with Kuhn (20.28), Matsumoto (20.31) and Wood (20.49) finishing behind him.
Four Gaucho women collected points in the 500 free including Lindsay Gaudinier, who placed 10th overall and second in the B final with a time of 4:57.97. In the mens 500 free, Ethan Bradley took sixth-place, touching the wall in 4:33.12. In the 200 individual medley, Sara Nicponski turned in the Gaucho women’s top performance taking 13th with a mark of 2:05.08, just beating out Kelsey Lewis who touched the wall in 2:05.15.
Two UCSB men, Chris Good and Danny McClary, finished in the top-eight in the 200 IM. Good took sixth (1:49.61) and McClary placed eighth (1:51.21). The Gaucho women finished the day with yet another record and another NCAA B qualifying standard.
The 400 medley A relay of Javanifard, Katy Freeman, Erin Yamamoto and May finished in 3:37.87, beating the previous school record of 3:38.57 set last season. On the men’s side, the UCSB A team of Good, Sudbury, McClary and Wood finished fourth in the 400 medley relay with a season-best time of 3:18.26.
After one day of competition, the Gaucho women are currently in third place with 340.3 points, trailing USC (423 points) and Washington (390 points). The men are also in third with 333 points, trailing Cal (397 points) and USC (371 points).
The Gauchos will continue action at the Husky Invitational on Friday. The preliminaries and finals for the 200 medley relay, 400 individual medley, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and the 800 free relay will all be swam tomorrow.
