BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Following a dominant performance at the CSUB Sprint Classic on Friday afternoon, the UC Santa Barbara men's and women's swim team continued its strong start to the 2019 season with another pair of wins at the Roadrunner Invitational on Saturday.
The UCSB men's team racked up 668.5 points to defeat host CSU Bakersfield (458.5) and Cal Baptist (414) while the women's team accumulated 610.5 points to top CSU Bakersfield (428), Cal Baptist (279.5), San Jose State (256) and Dixie State (143).
"While it took the team a few events to get into today's meet, I thought we did a nice job building off of yesterday's momentum," said head coach Matt Macedo. "Emily Boggess and Zoe Cosgrove had some huge swims for this early in the season and Doug Nogueira and Joe Lastelic led our men to dominating wins the past two days."
The Gaucho women nearly swept away the competition, winning nine of the 11 events while adding four second-place and four third-place finishes. The men, meanwhile, won five events to go along with four second-place results and six third-place swims. Overall, UCSB accounted for 14 wins in 22 overall events.
Redshirt junior, Boggess, paced the Gauchos in the pool with four overall victories, three of which came individually in the 200 Free (1:51.14), 500 Free (4:55.41) and the 1000 Free (10:09.11). Her fourth victory came as a member of UCSB's "A" relay in the 400 Free, swimming the leadoff leg with a 25.30 split, and was joined by Cosgrove, Lexi Fusari and Emily Ward.
Santa Barbara also took care of business in the 400 Medley Relay, as the "A" team of Cosgrove, Nicola Churchill, Jacquelyn Harris and Ward edged out Bakersfield with a time of 3:51.33.
In addition to being a part of two winning relays, Cosgrove added a pair of wins of her own, touching the wall first in both the 200 Back (1:59.40) and 200 IM (2:04.12).
Rounding out the other first-place finishes on the women's side was Maya Lee, taking first in the 200 Fly with a time of 2:04.85, and Fusari, who sprinted to victory in the 50 Free in 24.34. Fusari also had a strong showing with a time of 52.39 in the 100 Free to take third, finishing right behind teammate Ward, who placed second in 52.31.
Other highlights for the women's swim team on Saturday included second-place finishes from Brittney Straw in the 200 Breaststroke (2:23.35), Bryn McGowan in the 50 Free (24.40) and Elena England in the 200 Back (2:04.13). Freshman Maelynn Lawrence tallied a pair of third-place finishes in the 500 Free (5:05.29) and 1000 Free (10:31.04).
On the men's side, Nogueira and Lastelic led the way with two victories apiece. MPSF Athlete of the Week Noguiera picked up where he left off with wins in the 200 Back (1:49.74), 200 IM (1:51.83) and a third-place finish in the 200 Free (1:41.30), while Lastelic out-touched all of his competitors in the 200 Free (1:40.24) and 500 Free (4:35.79).
Marcello Quarante rounded out the event winners on the men's side with a first-place finish in the 200 Breast (2:07.28).
Noguiera and Quarante teamed up with Fischer Basham and Kian Brouwer to hand UCSB a third-place finish with a time of 3:23.10 in the 400 Medley Relay. In the 400 Free Relay, the Gauchos took second behind a time of 3:02.52 from the quartet of Brouwer, Theo Andrews, Oscar Jameson and Lastelic.
Other highlights on the men's side included a pair of second-place finishes from a pair of freshman. Dominic Falcon took second in both the 200 Fly (1:52.46) and 500 Free (4:39.79) while William Schodorf earned second in the 1000 Free (9:49.31). Sophomore Daniel Marella was a close third behind Schodorf in the 1000 with a time of 9:50.49, and took home another third-place finish in the 200 Breast (2:07.29).
"Now we turn our attention to a tough UCLA meet for our women and an always exciting conference opponent in Cal Poly on Saturday," Macedo said.
The Gaucho women travel to UCLA on Friday, Oct. 25 at 2:00 p.m. while both the men and women will take on rival Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 11:00 a.m.
