UCSB swim and dive will compete in its final regular season meet this Saturday against Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.

It will be both the men’s and women’s final head to head dual meet before the Pac-12 swimming and diving championships that begin on Feb. 28th.

“We are looking forward to conference championships at the end of February,” Head Coach Gregg Wilson said. “We’ve done well in dual meets this season, but we’ve competed under tough conditions and we feel prepared.”

The Gaucho men are 4-2 in dual meets this season and have already registered a 191-107 win against Cal Poly at home on November 3rd. The women stand at 7-3 in head to heads and were victorious 167-133 against Cal Poly at the same meet.

Meanwhile, the Mustangs are coming off an important sweep of UC Santa Cruz, in which both their men and women won on the road. Poly also beat UC Davis before UCSB fell to the Aggies up in Fresno.

“[The Poly meet] is our last dual meet of the year so it will be a good time to fine tune our races before we head to Pac-12’s,” senior Andrew Latimer said. “Coming off last weekend’s wins, everyone is in good spirits, and we are confident we will finish the regular season strong with a win.”

In their most recent meet, UCSB’s men and women both won against The University of the Pacific. The Gauchos took advantage of the energy provided by Senior Weekend to claim two decisive victories at homes last weekend.

Junior Sophia Yamauchi will look to continue her impressive season after claiming two wins and a close second place finish against Pacific. Yamauchi has been dominant in the individual medley and freestyle, her specialty events. Even more impressive, she has filled a need for the team by picking up victories in the breaststroke as well.

“We’ve relied on Sophia so much all year,” Wilson said. “And after our recent injury and illness troubles, it’s good to know we can count on her to step up and win outside her usual events.”

Sophomore Andrew Barmann looks to continue his hot streak for the men after winning the 500 freestyle (4:40.14) and the 200 freestyle (1:44.09) against Pacific. He also set a career high in the 200 IM (2:00.06).

Cal Poly is currently winning in the “blue-green rivalry matchup” for 2012-2013, by a score of 6-5. The tally includes all sports, with swimming and diving standing at 2-0 so far this season.

Santa Barbara will hit the pool in San Luis Obispo at noon this Saturday, hoping to end their regular season with a victory.

 A version of this article appeared on page 5 of the February 8th 2013’s print edition of the Daily Nexus.
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