In the final meet of 2010, the UC Santa Barbara men’s and women’s swim team defeated visiting West Virginia in a dual at Campus Pool on Friday afternoon. The Gaucho women outscored West Virginia, 158-103, while the men posted a 161-91 victory.
UCSB got rolling immediately as both the women and men’s ‘A’ relay teams won the 200 yard medley relay. The women’s team of Allie Knight, Paige Bradley, Miranda Schneider and Kendall Neely touched the wall in 1:46.03, almost three seconds faster than West Virginia’s second-place finish.
For the gentlemen, Kevin Ferguson, Tim Freeman, Max Horrell and Chris Peterson finished in 1:31.93, blowing away their Mountaineer counterparts by over five seconds.
Andrea Ward then opened the individual swims with a phenomenal showing in the 1,000 freestyle. Ward finished in 1:06.32, which is the second fastest time in UCSB history and just .62 seconds off of Tabitha Bonney’s 20 year-old school record.
For the men, Ryan Garcia captured first in the 1,000 free in 9:47.80. He was a two-event winner on Friday after he also won the 200 backstroke in a time of 1:51.72.
Several other Gauchos won multiple individual events during the dual. Paige Bradley was a three-event winner, taking first in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.48), the 200 breast (2:20.07) and the 400 individual medley (4:26.88).
Kevin Ferguson captured the top spot in the 100 backstroke (50.62) and the 100 free (44.96). Allie Knight won both the 100 backstroke (58.08) and 200 back (2:04.65). Lucas Norman won the 200 free (1:42.01) and the 500 free (4:41.67). Tim Freeman, in his first meet of the season, took first in the 100 breast (57.17) and the 200 breast (2:05.05) and Max Horrell won the 200 butterfly (1:53.12) and the 100 fly (51.27).
UCSB swept the sprint freestyle events as Kendall Neely won the women’s 50 free (23.76), Chris Peterson won the men’s 50 free (20.21) and Katie Tomkinson won the 100 free (52.65), an event which the Gauchos swept first through third; Mariah Tharp finished second in 53.07 and Anne Peanasky was third in 53.22.
Randy Aakhus rounded out the individual victories winning the 400 IM (4:05.64) by over six seconds.
The Gauchos capped off the meet with wins in both 400 free relays. Peanasky, Mariah Tharp, Emma Hunt and Katie Tomkinson finished in 3:31.28. On the men’s side, Ferguson, Peterson, Norman and Andrew Latimer touched the wall in 3:05.73.
The Gauchos will be back in action on Jan. 8 when they head to USC for a dual meet with the Trojans, which is scheduled for a noon start.
