Long Beach, Calif.  – Today, three Gauchos attended the 2025 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Open Water Championships in Long Beach, Calif. The event took place at Marine Stadium, an open water venue originally created to host Olympic rowing. The MPSF Open Water Championship is broken up over three parts: men's individual 5K, women's individual 5k, and team relays. The team relay consists of four legs, with each participant swimming 500 meters. Senior Connor Martilla and freshmen Chloe Eyrich and Lelia Symington represented the Blue and Gold at the competition.

The Men's 5K started the event. Martilla got the Gauchos off to a hot start with a time of 1:01:16.20, finishing fourth out of 33 swimmers. With over 20 universities and 200 swimmers in the championships, Connor Martilla made a name for the Gauchos. On the women's side of the day, Lelia Symington placed 19th out of 76 swimmers with a time of 1:05:25.00. Chloe Eyrich swam a 1:11:31.00 which placed her 56th.

The Gauchos only competed in the individual 5K events, yet the Blue and Gold put on a great show on the road. Santa Barbara looks to continue their strong start to the 2025-26 season on Oct. 31st in Riverside, Calif. in the Cal Baptist Invitational.