July 27, 2011

Bevy of Gauchos Headed to Senior Nationals

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A total of 17 current UC Santa Barbara swimmers will compete at the 2011 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships in Palo Alto, Calif. next week. The event, which is being held at Stanford University's Avery Aquatic Center, will run August 2-6.

Along with selecting this year's USA Swimming National Champions, the event will serve as the selection meet for the 2011 Pan American Games, set for October 15-22 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the 2011 FINA World Junior Championships, set for August 16-21 in Lima, Peru.

Many Gauchos have remained in Santa Barbara over the summer and will represent Santa Barbara Aquatic Club at Nationals.

Paige Bradley (200 IM), Andrea Ward (400 free, 100 and 200 fly) and Sophia Yamauchi (200 IM, 100 and 200 breast) will each swim for SBAC. On the men's side, Kevin Ferguson (100 back, 50 and 100 free, 400 free relay), Tim Freeman (100 and 200 breast), Ryan Hanni (50, 100 and 200 free, 400 free relay), Chris Peterson (50 and 100 free, 400 free relay), Garrett Thompson (50, 100 and 200 free, 400 free relay) and Kevin Kuhn (400 free relay) will each be making appearances.

Gaucho alum, Katy Freeman, will also be competing in the 100 and 200 breast as a member of SBAC.

Several swimmers will be swimming with their hometown clubs. Both Allie Knight (400 IM and 200 back) and Katie Tomkinson (400 and 800 free relays, 400 medley relay) will swim for North Coast Aquatics. Randy Aakhus (400 IM) will swim with Bakersfield Swim Club and Evan Simoni (200 IM, 100 breast and 200 breast) will compete with College Area Swim Team.

Andrew Latimer (50 free) will swim with North Bay Aquatics while teammate Mike London (400 and 800 free relays) will be swimming with Santa Clara Swim Club. Max Horrell (100 fly) will represent the Marin Pirates and Andrew Dossa (400 free relay) will swim for the Walnut Creek Aquabears.
For more information and to stay abreast on complete results visit USAswimming.org.