IRVINE, Calif. – The Big West announced it's weekly award winners for Athlete of the week and this week, UC Santa Barbara's own Ashley Ray earned her first career weekly award. Ray becomes the fourth Gauchos to earn the award this season joining Samantha Banos, Hazel Derr and Miranda Stevenson.
 
The Gaucho Swim team traveled north this past week to take on Pacific and UC Davis in back-to-back days. Against Pacific, Ray claimed three first place finishes. She helped the 200 free relay team with a 23.09 spit, swam a 51.41 in the 100 free event earning her best time. She then swam the 100 breast with a time of 1:02.76. She completed the meet with a second place finish in the 400 medley relay swimming the breaststroke to a time of 1:01.75 for her split.
 
The very next day she nearly matched her performance against conference foe UC Davis. Ray earned two first place finishes in the 100 breast and helping the 200 medley relay team. She then earned a second place finish with the 400 freestyle relay team swimming a split of 51.42. She also placed third in the 200 breast with a time of 2:16.96.
 
Ray and the Gauchos will have this week off before they host their annual UC Santa Barbara Invite on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.