The UCSB swim and dive teams cruised to a pair of dual meet victories in their home opener against UC San Diego. The men took down the Tritons, 170-128 while the women posted a 178-122 win.
The Gauchos got off to a very quick start winning the first four events of the day. They would go on to win 23 out of 32 total events with five Gauchos winning multiple events.
The UCSB men and women won all of the relays starting with the 200 medley relay. The women’s team of Allie Knight, Sophia Yamauchi, Emma Hunt and Katie Tomkinson took first with a time of 1:46.53 while the men’s relay of Josh Smith, Tim Freeman, Wade Allen and Alex Campbell won with a time of 1:33.87.
Displaying dominance in the distance races was Andrew Barmann for the men, and Heren Alanis for the women. Barmann took first place in both the 1000 free (9:25.10) and 500 free (4:35.22) for the Gauchos. Alanis touched the wall first in the same events posting a time of 10:18.04 in the 1000 free and 4:58.90 in the 500 free.
“Those two were certainly outstanding,” head coach Gregg Wilson said of Barmann and Alanis. “They both had really good times and it was a very good effort.”
Other multiple winners for UCSB included junior Allie Knight who won the 200 backstroke (2:03.74) and the 200 IM (2:08.88) for the women. Also on the women’s side, sophomore Carissa Metcalf took first in the 100 breaststroke (1:04.67) and 200 breaststroke (2:19.89). For the men, Wade Allen came away with victories in the 50 free (20.72) and 100 free (46.10).
Freshman Marissa Neel continues to impress for the Gauchos as she won the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.61. Other individual winners for the UCSB women included Yamauchi in the 100 butterfly (56.79), Andrea Ward in the 200 butterfly (2:04.03) and Katie Tomkinson in the 50 free (24.43).
For the men, UCSB freshman Josh Smith took home first place in the 100 backstroke (52.13). Tim Freeman won the 100 breaststroke (56.54) and Randy Aakhus came out on top in the 200 backstroke (1:52.10) in a race the Gauchos finished one-two-three. Andy Castilleja won the last individual race of the day in the 200 IM (1:54.51).
The Gauchos finished the day as strong as they began it winning each of the 200 free relays. The men’s team of Campbell, Matthew Bilello, Allen and Andrew Latimer edged out UCSB’s ‘B’ relay by three tenths of a second to win with a time of 1:24.49. The women’s relay of Yamauchi, Kimmie Kreuzberger, Mariah Tharp and Tomkinson won finishing in 1:36.23.
Quetzal Moreno came up huge for the Gauchos winning the women’s three-meter diving competition with a score of 218.85. For the men, Sam Thomas-Pate came in fourth place in both the one-meter and three-meter events. The divers compete in the USC Invitational all day tomorrow.
“It was a pretty good test for us,” coach Wilson said. “UC San Diego is coming off a great meet and so overall it was a very good test for our teams.”
With the victories, the women are now 3-1 while the men improve to 1-1 in dual meets.
The Gaucho swim teams are back in action tomorrow, Nov. 3 when they take on Cal Poly at Campus Pool at 11:00 a.m.
