The UCSB men’s and women’s track and field teams are poised to begin their seasons this Saturday at Westmont College in UCSB’s Gaucho Round-Up.

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The meet will be a double dual meet against Westmont and Pepperdine, with eleven running events and eight field events scheduled.

Santa Barbara’s men’s team is coming off a second-place finish at the Big West Championship last year, in which it put up an impressive 167 points but ended up falling to first-place winner Long Beach State, who won with a score of 185 points.

The women are looking to improve on a fourth-place finish of 80 points at the Big West championship last year.

Fourteen returning UCSB athletes medaled last year at the Big West Championship. This group of returning medalists is led by junior Darion Williams (Decathlon), senior Jessica Emde (High Jump), and senior Bryan Guijarro (10,000m) – all of whom earned Gold at last year’s conference championship meet.

Eleven Gauchos made it to the NCAA West Preliminary Championships last year, with three ultimately advancing to the NCAA Championships. Of those three, senior middle distance runner Tori Tsolis is the lone returner to this year’s squad.

Saturday’s double dual meet with begin with a field event, the hammer throw, at 10 a.m. The first track event will take place at 12 p.m. with the 4 x 100m relay.