UCSB head swim coach Gregg Wilson earned his 26th career Big West Coach of the Year honor it was announced on Wednesday by the conference. Wilson was named Women’s Coach of the Year for the fourth consecutive season and for the 12th time in his career, while Kevin Ferguson was named the 2009 Men’s Freshman of the Year.
Both of the awards come on the heels of the Gaucho men’s and women’s victories at the 2009 Big West Conference Swimming and Diving Championships last weekend at Bellmont Plaza. The Gaucho women won their 13th conference crown and their fourth straight and the men won their 28th all-time team title.
Ferguson, who hails from Sacramento had an excellent Big West meet in his first year of competition. He took home the individual title in the 100 back (48.61), and also was a member of UCSB’s champion 200 medley relay and 400 free relay. In the 400 free relay, Ferguson and his teammates Bradley Matsumoto, Kevin Kuhn and Scott Vogelgesang broke the meet, conference and the longest standing school record with a time of 2:54.93.
Ferguson was the lone freshman to win an individual event at the league meet and swam the fastest 100 free split (43.30) – tying Matsumoto – in the 400 free relay.
Wilson led the Gaucho women to their fourth consecutive Big West title, matching the 1987-90 UCSB teams for the most consecutive league titles in the program history. The UCSB women won 11 event titles at the Big West Championships, finished third at the Husky Invitational in December and had six Big West Athlete of the Week honors this season.
The Gauchos will be back in action at the NCAA Championships being held at Texas A&M during the weeks of Mar. 19-21 (women) and Mar. 26-28 (men).
