FULLERTON, Calif. (May 6, 2023) – The UC Santa Barbara Men's and Women's Track and Field teams competed in the first weekend of The Big West Championships which consisted of the women's heptathlon and men's decathlon. The Gauchos sent Jessica Swalve, Brad Thomas and Matthew Molina to the meet, and all three of these Gauchos made it to the podium.

The first of the two multis to finish was the women's heptathlon. Swalve grabbed second place after competing in all seven events, moving herself up to fourth in the UC Santa Barbara record books in this event with a score of 5255. Her best events were the shot put, where she placed first with a throw of 13.56 meters, and the 800-meter run, where she grabbed first with a time of 2:21.64. Her second-place finish came against 18 other competitors.

On the men's side, both Thomas and Molina earned spots on the podium, placing second and third, respectively. Thomas put up the third-best score in UC Santa Barbara's history at 7414, which gave him second at The Big West Championships. He placed first in the long jump with a distance of 6.98 meters while also taking the top spot in the shot put and the javelin, putting up throws of 14.35 meters and 62.66 meters, respectively. Molina, on the other hand, finished in third place at The Big West Championships. His first-place finishes came in the high jump, the 110 hurdles and discus. His high jump ended with a mark of 1.96 meters while he threw a distance of 40.04 meters in the disc and ran a time of 14.83 seconds in the 110 hurdles. He beat his own record with a score of 7053 to stay in sixth in the record books.

These stellar performances for the Gauchos set the stage for next weekend as the rest of the team competes in The Big West Championships on Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13. Live results will be available for the meet.