SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The UC Santa Barbara Swim teams finished off their first meet of the season in Stockton, California. After day one of the UOP Invite, the Women's team held a commanding lead, while the Men's team stood in second place behind the Stanford Cardinal. 

Following today's events, the final scoreboard for the Women's Teams read, UCSB 1436 points, UOP 894 points, Seattle University 698 points. On the Men's side of this weekend's meet, the final scoreboard read, UCSB 918.5 points, Stanford 800 points, UOP 757.5 points, Seattle University 682 points.

Diving into day two of opening weekend, the Gauchos were in a prime position to make a run in the second half of the meet, and that is exactly what we did. The Gauchos got off to a strong start on day two seeing four first place finishes in the first seven events. 

Sophomore Taisei Saito brought home a first-place finish for the Gauchos today with a time of 1:50.83. This, along with senior Samantha Banos' time of 58.28 seconds in the 100 IM, helped the Gauchos set the tone early into Saturday's final events.

The Men's team mounted a comeback today with multiple dominant performances throughout the day. In the 100-yard freestyle, the Blue and Gold took six of the top ten finishes, including first and third place in the event. The Women's team continued on from yesterday's dominance with another strong showing, highlighted by the 200-yard fly and breaststroke. The Gauchos took first, second, third, and fifth place in the 200 fly and first, second, and third in the 200 breast.

UP NEXT
Next weekend, the Gauchos will travel south to UC San Diego to compete in another invitational. In San Diego that weekend, aside from the Gauchos, will be Cal, Hawaii, and UC San Diego.