The UCSB men came away with a fifth place finish, while the women placed eighth at the Arena Invitational swim meet at Long Beach Belmont Plaza Pool.
The Gaucho men finished the meet with 599 points overall and the women put up 457. On the men’s side, Stanford dominated the competition posting 2,112 points. Hawaii took second place with 848, and tournament host UC San Diego came in third with 768. For the women, Cal took first place with 1168.5 points topping second place Arizona State’s 970 mark. San Diego State wound up third with 908.5.
There were plenty of fast swims for the Gauchos who had two NCAA ‘B’ cuts achieved on the final day. Allie Knight capped a successful meet with a NCAA ‘B’ cut time of 1:59.19 in the women’s 200 backstroke. Her time was good enough to qualify for the consolation final and she would take 11th overall.
For the men, Freshman Mickey Mowry would post a NCAA ‘B’ cut as well in the 200 butterfly. His time of 1:47.71 would give him an eighth-place finish in the championship final.
That makes three NCAA ‘B’ cuts marked overall for the Gauchos at the Arena Invitational. Carissa Metcalf attained a ‘B’ cut of her own in the 100 breaststroke.
The top finish for UCSB came in the final event of the day, the men’s 400 freestyle relay. The ‘A’ relay team of Alexander Campbell, Andrew Dossa, Chase Lemley and Lucas Norman touched the wall in third place (2:59.89). The best individual finish of the day came once again by Metcalf. She placed fifth in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:16.76.
The day began with the distance events, particularly the 1650 freestyle. Heren Alanis (17:29.18) and Micaela Velasquez (17:32.71) would finish 16th and 18th respectively for the Gaucho women. Andrew Barmann found himself cracking into the top ten coming away with a ninth place finish (15:40.85). Armen Darbinyan finished 18th overall (15:53.98).
In the men’s 200 backstroke Josh Smith would advance to the consolation final where he would take 15th overall (1:51.76). Collin Baratte advanced to the bonus final and he would finish 21st (1:52.18).
Katie Tomkinson made it to the consolation final in the 100 freestyle and came in 11th place overall (50.77).
The men’s 100 freestyle had four Gauchos in the mix. Qualifying for the consolation final were Lemley and Campbell, while Norman and Dossa advanced to the bonus final. Lemley finished 12th (45.54), Campbell 16th (46.04), Norman 20th (45.64) and Dossa 23rd (45.86).
The women’s 200 breaststroke which saw Metcalf place fifth also featured Paige Bradley and Erica Taylor place 11th and 15th, respectively, in the consolation final.
Andy Castilleja advanced to the final in the men’s 200 breaststroke and he took seventh overall (2:01.08). In the consolation final, Tyler Jean finished in 2:06.29 to take 13th overall.
Marissa Neel placed 19th overall (2:03.29) in the women’s 200 butterfly after qualifying for the bonus final.
The women’s 400 freestyle relay consisted of Metcalf, Tomkinson, Kimmie Kreuzberger and Alanis and they swam to an eighth overall finish (3:25.10).
The UC Santa Barbara swim teams compete next at the US Swimming Winter Nationals in Austin, Texas Nov. 29-Dec. 1.
