SANTA BARBARA, Calif.(Friday, Oct. 7)— After a long summer of early morning practices, the UC Santa Barbara men's and women's swim teams are ready to start their 2022-23 competitive season. The Blue-Green rivalry continues as the Gauchos host Cal Poly this Saturday at Campus Pool.
The intrasquad meet held last Saturday gave a glimpse of how the team's long practices have paid off.
"Season so far has been going well," says head coach Jaclyn Rosen. "We had a lot of good executed races and a lot of things we had been working on in practice I saw coming out in the swim meet so that's really important."
Coming off of a dominant season last year, resulting in a second and fourth place finish at MPSF Championships for the men and women respectively, the swimmers are ready to continue and build on their success.
On the men's side, the team is led by seniors Dominic Falcon and Alec Cullen. Falcon took second in the 200 Fly and third in 200 and 400 IM at the MPSF Championships. While unable to compete last year due to injury, Cullen is all healed up and ready to take on the season. Other swimmers to keep an eye on are sophomores Kyle Brill, Matthew Driscoll, and Austin Sparrow, along with junior Corban McIntosh. Along with Falcon, they are six of the seven swimmers returning who had earned MPSF First Team honors in their respective events. In his freshman debut, Brill finished the season in dominant fashion, taking first in the 200 IM and 200 Back and second in the 400 IM. Driscoll took first in the 100 Back and third in the 200 Back. McIntosh secured third in the 200 Breast event. Falcon, Driscoll, and Sparrow also helped the Gauchos win the 800 Free Relay.
On the women's side, the Gauchos are led by team captains Reagan Nibarger and Gillian Flath. Nibarger earned second team honors in the 50 Free, 200 Free, and 200 Fly at MPSF Championships. Flath earned second team honors in the 100 Back. Other notable returners include Cameron Collins and Maelynne Lawrence. Collins placed third in the 1650 Free while Lawrence took home the silver in the 200 Fly. The women also took home the championship in the 800 Free Relay event swam by Lawrence, Paige Gambetta, Molly McCance, and Nibarger. All of them earned First Team Honors in their respective events as well.
The meet against Caly Poly begins at 4:00pm this Saturday at Campus Pool.
