The UCSB men’s swim team posted five more NCAA ‘B’ cuts on the third day of the Pac-10 Championships, which are being held through Saturday, at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.
Due to Thursday night’s disqualification in the 200 free relay, the Gauchos decided to give
the event another shot during Friday’s time trials in an attempt to capture a time that will
earn them a spot at the NCAA Championships. The ‘A’ team of Chris Peterson, Ryan Hanni,
Garrett Thompson and Kevin Ferguson posted a time of 1:18.29 in the time trial, which is a
NCAA ‘B’ cut and 1.49 seconds faster than their previous season best.
In the evening’s first event, the 400 individual medley, Randy Aakhus was the top UCSB
finisher. Aakhus took 12th with at time of 3:55.26. Evan Simoni placed 14th with a time of
3:558.13, though he swam the event in 3:56.64 during the morning’s preliminary heat. Ryan
Garcia, who took 16th in 4:02.18, also posted his best time of the day in the prelims
(3:59.18).
In the 100 butterfly, Max Horrell won the consolation final with a time of 48.58, which was
.10 seconds slower than his prelims time. He took 17th place overall. Dylan Templeton took
21st place in 49.69 seconds.
Ryan Hanni had the top individual finish of the day in the 200 free. The sophomore placed
11th with a NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 1:36.44. Lucas Norman took 18th (1:39.08) and Andrew
Dossa placed 23rd (1:41.17).
Garrett Thompson was seeded 14th in the 200 free final after swimming the event in 1:37.73
during the prelims, but he did not swim the finals due to the 200 free relay time trial.
In the 100 breaststroke, Tim Freeman posted a NCAA ‘B’ cut of 55.03 seconds, which placed
him 16th. He swam a slightly faster time of 54.74 seconds in the prelims. Andrew Latimer
took 23rd in the event (58.62) and Scott Nocco took 24th (58.85).
The final individual event of the day was the 100 backstroke. Max Horrell took 22nd with a
time of 50.96 seconds and Alex Campbell touched in 24th place with a mark of 52.49. They
each swam faster in the prelims with Horell going 50.48 and Campbell going 52.34.
Kevin Ferguson was seeded 15th into the 100 backstroke final, but like Thompson in the 200
free, he did not swim the event due to the 200 free relay time trial. Ferguson posted a time of
48.25 seconds in the 100 back prelims, which was just .07 seconds off of Pat Ota’s 2006
school record in the event.
UCSB finished the day with the 400 medley relay. The team of Ryan Garcia, Tim Freeman, Max
Horrell and Andrew Latimer finished in 3:20.90.
After today’s events, UCSB is in sixth place with 115 points. Stanford has continued to
dominate the meet and is in first-place with 599 points.
The Pac-10 Championships will conclude on Saturday with the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free,
200 breast, 200 fly and the 400 free relay.
