SANTA BARBARA, Calif.
In the last home dual meet of the season, the UC Santa Barbara men and women faced off against the University of Pacific Tigers. While senior and team captain Cheyenne Low grabbed two individual wins and one relay win for the women, the Gaucho men dominated the distance events. The women came in second to UOP with a final score of 158-120. The Gaucho men finished the meet by narrowly edging out the Tigers, with a final score of 147-140.
The Gaucho women's A relay (3:44.49) kicked off the meet by winning the 400 yard medley relay, beating out the Tiger's A relay (3:47.15).
Emily Boggess (10:16.72) out-touched UOP swimmer Brigid McNally (10:19.60), earning first place in the 1000 yard freestyle. The Gauchos then went one-two-three in the men's 1000 yard freestyle. Joseph Lastelic (9:44.18) touched first, followed by senior Matt Drum (9:46.22) in second, and senior Andy Lau (9:54.96) in third.
The Gaucho men pulled an impressive one-two-three-four win in the 500 yard freestyle, continuing their domination of the distance events. Joseph Lastelic (4:31.08) earned his second individual event win of the day, followed by Eric Vanbrocklin (4:33.14) in second, Logan Hotchkiss (4:36.31) in third, and senior Matt Drum (4:41.70) in fourth.
Senior and women's team captain Cheyenne Low (55.82) grabbed her first individual event win of the meet in the 100 yard backstroke, with Allie Stevens (57.30) touching second. Low (2:01.19) stole another backstroke event, going one-two in the 200 backstroke with Melissa Mullis (2:04.29) in second.
The Gauchos took first in both the men's and women's 100 yard breaststroke, with Heaven Quintana (1:03.77) securing a win for the women, and Jonathan Panchak (56.43) winning the event for the men.
Chris Nolan (1:49.44) and Kevin Mendoza (1:49.53) went one-two in the 200 yard butterfly.
Julia Mikota (51.95) beat out Vaiva Gimbutyte (52.46) of UOP in the women's 100 yard freestyle, earning another individual event win for the Gauchos.
Billy Mullis (1:46.49) placed first in the men's 200 yard backstroke. Jonathan Panchak (2:05.17) took another first place win in the 200 yard breaststroke.
The men won their last two individual events, with Yoessef Tibazi (48.35) touching first in the 100 yard butterfly, and Dylan Kubik (3:57.25) winning the 400 yard IM.
To finish out the meet, the Gaucho men's A relay (1:22.33) pulled a win in the 200 yard freestyle relay, after UOP's A relay was disqualified. Yoessef Tibazi (20.01) had the fastest split time in the event. Julia Mikota (23.23) had the fastest split of the women's 200 yard freestyle relay.
The Gaucho men and women will be travelling to Las Vegas to compete against University of Nevada, Las Vegas, next weekend. UCSB will have the team back again for more home meets next season.
(Picture taken by Filipe Garcia Photography)
