The UCSB women’s swim team came away with mixed results in their season-opening meet against UCLA and Oregon State on Saturday. The meet, an annual triple dual meet against Pac-10 opponents, yielded the Gaucho’s a 182-80 victory over Oregon and a 94-165 loss to UCLA.

In the first event of the day, the 200 medley relay, the Bruins finished first, third and fourth, jumping out with a big lead on the scoreboard due to a disqualification of the Gauchos’ medley “A” team.

“We usually win the medley relay, but the girls did not let it get them down,” Head Coach Gregg Wilson said.

After a false start in the medley relay, freshman Emily Adamczyk put forth one of the strongest performances of any UCSB swimmer.

“She’s a very good freshman and she had a very fast start, it just turned out to be too fast of a start,” Wilson said.

After the mishap, Adamczyk stepped up her game, placing second in three races: the 100 breaststroke (1:06.00), the 200 breaststroke (2:18.91) and the 400 IM (4:29.17).

Other notable performances for the Gauchos came from sophomore Meagan Brown, who placed fourth in the 1000 with a time of 10:26.99; freshman Katie Stover, who placed third in the 200 with a time of 1:53.10; and senior Naomi Javanifard, who placed third in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.55.

Overall, the Gauchos did exceedingly well in the short races. Placing first, second and third in the 50 freestyle were sophomore Kendall Neely (23.95) and seniors Anne Marie May (24.20) and Courtney Bauer (24.34), respectively. Coming in first and second in the 100 freestyle were sophomore Sasza Lohrey (52.09) and May (52.33).

“We’ve got to get our distance freestylers swimming faster and quicker,” Wilson said in regards to UCLA’s domination in the 500 and 1000 freestyle races.

The Bruins swept the top three placings in both races, with UCLA swimmer Sam VandenBerge finishing first in both. “What we were trying to do is take as many races from UCLA as we could and then beat Oregon State,” Wilson said.
UCSB finished on a high point by coming in first and second in the 400 freestyle relay, ensuring their win over Oregon State. However, neither team was able to trouble UCLA who also beat Oregon with a score of 182-77.

“This is a hard-working group, and it was a good initial start,” Wilson said of his team. “Anytime we can beat a Pac-10 team is a good thing.”

The Gaucho men’s and women’s swim teams will both be in action again next Saturday in a meet at Cal Poly that should prove to be an early challenge for Santa Barbara.

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