LONG BEACH – The UC Santa Barbara swimmers were handed tough losses by USC on Saturday as the Gaucho women fell, 156-92, to the fifth-ranked Trojans and the men were handed two losses in a doubleheader meet against the ninth-ranked Trojan men, falling 140-44 and 136-47 at McDonald’s Swim Stadium.
USC opened strong claiming first in the 200 medley relay on both sides. The men finished in 1:30.39, beating the Gaucho ‘A’ team of Kevin Ferguson, Tim Freeman, Max Horrell and Chris Peterson (1:31.09). On the women’s end, the Trojan ‘A’ and ‘B’ relays went one-two as UCSB’s top-team of Allie Knight, Anne Peanasky, Miranda Schneider and Kendall Neely grabbed the remaining two points in the event with a mark of 1:47.96.
The Trojans dominated the men’s 1,000 free, sweeping first through fourth place. Evan Simoni, the lone Gaucho representative in the event took fifth in 10:07.24. On the women’s end, Andrea Ward was the top UCSB finisher in the 1,000, placing fourth in 10:10.53. She later took second in the 500 free with a mark of 4:57.35.
In the men’s 50 free, Chris Peterson grabbed second place, finishing in 20.21. Vladimir Morozov won the event in 19.91 seconds. Peterson later returned the favor to Morozov, edging out the Trojan by .07 seconds in the 100 free with his mark of 44.70. Andrew Latimer took third in the 100, going 47.61.
Allie Knight and Mariah Tharp went two-three in the 100 backstroke, touching the wall in 58.79 and 1:01.12, respectively. Presley Bard won the event in 56.27. Knight took third in the 200 back later in the meet (2:05.24).
In the men’s 100 back, Kevin Ferguson was out-touched by .13 seconds by Alex Lendrum of USC, who finished in 49.19.
Tim Freeman also faced a close race in the 100 breaststroke. He came up short to Dillon Connolly with his time of 56.45, which was .43 off of the event winner’s.
The Gaucho women had strong showings in the sprint events. In the 50 free, Kendall Neely (23.87) and Mariah Tharp (24.43) went two-three, finishing behind Kasey Carlson of USC (23.51). Then, in the 100 free, the Gauchos swept second through fourth-place. Hunt (53.17), Katie Tomkinson (53.21) and Neely (53.45) collected nine points for UCSB in the event.
The men’s teams also swam an additional 10 events, which included several events that are not swum at the NCAA level.
In the second men’s meet, the Trojans took first in nine of the 10 events. The USC ‘A’ 100 yard medley relay out-touched the Gaucho team of Ferguson, Freeman, Horrell and Peterson by .47 seconds with its time of 41.09.
UCSB’s lone first-place was Peterson’s repeat win in the 100 free, this time in 44.80 seconds.
The Gauchos captured three second-place finishes in individual swims: Ferguson in the 50 free (21.11), Max Horrell in the 50 fly (23.35) and Freeman in the 50 breast (26.28).
UCSB concluded the meet with a second-place in the 100 free relay with a time of 37.17 posted by Peterson, Ferguson, Andrew Latimer and Alex Campbell. They finished .25 seconds behind the USC ‘A’ relay team. The final score for the second men’s meet had USC ahead, 136-47.
Meanwhile, in diving news, UCSB competed at UCLA’s Bruin Invitational this weekend.
On Friday, sophomore Toby Moyneur placed 13th on the one-meter board with a score of 178.10. He posted a score of 179.20 during the semifinals earlier in the day. For the women, Missy Burley posted a score of 159.75 and was 32nd in the three-meter preliminaries.
During Saturday’s one-meter competition, Burley took 35th with 136.40 points. Moyneur once again had his best showing in the semifinals, posting a score of 142.80 on the three-meter board. He finished 12th in the finals with 116.60 points.
UCSB will be back in action on Jan. 22 when it travels to UNLV for a meet against the Rebels at 11 a.m. The women’s team will also take-on Northern Arizona at the same meet.
