SANTA  BARBARA, CA – The Blue and Gold finished up the regular season yesterday. The UC Santa Barbara invite took place over Friday evening and Saturday morning, as well as the final afternoon session. The Gauchos hosted Fresno Pacific and Westmont University for a two-day invitational. The Gaucho Seniors were celebrated prior Saturday's last session of the 2025-26 regular season. 
How It Happened
The Gauchos dominated the freestyle events to set the tone early into the weekend, Alexi Zuckerman finished first in the 50 Free with a time of 23.05. Gretta Callison brought the Gold home in the 100 Free (50.83). Ella Martinez-Spencer kept the streak going into the 200 Free with her first-place time of 1:51.64. Samantha Banos handled business in the 500 Free, securing first place (4:48.25). Lelia Symington put a bookend on the Women's team's streak of Gold with her time of 17:10.20 in the 1650 Free. Lucas Hubbard brought home a win in the 200 Back (1:48.39), with Anseesh Veeravatnam finishing right behind him in second place at 1:50.30. Michael Peterson finished first in both the 100 Back (53.89) and 200 Breast (2:00.25). Bryden Thienlenhaus finished first in the 100 Fly, with a winning time of 48.36. Makenna Leacox (53.90) and Samantha Banos (1:57.79) both secured first place in the 100 and 200 Fly. Anna Brill capped the strong weekend off with a first-place finish in the 400 IM (4:32.76) where she finished 10 seconds prior to second place.
A Look Ahead
This concludes the 2025-26 Swim Regular Season. The Gaucho Swim team will be taking the start of February to prepare for conference championships on Feb. 11-14. The Blue and Gold will travel to Texas at the University of Houston to participate in the 2026 Big West Swim Championships. Following conference championships, the team will begin to prepare for the National Championships at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia.