Senior Lindsay Dalonzo won two events in the last dual meet of her UCSB career and sophomore Jennifer Schwalb added two first-place finishes of her own, but it wasn’t enough to keep Santa Barbara from losing to Irvine 172-90.
Saturday’s meet at Campus Pool also happened to be Senior Day for the swim team, and the Gaucho seniors came through with strong performances throughout the meet. Dalonzo finished first in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events, and senior Stephanie Netzley took third place in the 200 free and finished second behind Dalonzo in the 200 back.
“Lindsay had a good meet. She swam very well in the 200 back,” Head Coach Gregg Wilson said. “All the senior women swam well.”
Schwalb won the 200 fly and 200 individual medley with times of 2:03.14 and 2:05.82, respectively. She also took second place in the 100 fly, finishing just behind Irvine freshman Chelsea Nagata.
Junior captain Jennifer Cook also swam well, finishing second in the 100 breast and third in the 200 breast. Both races were won by Irvine sophomore Aubri Smallwood.
“We did what we expected to do,” Cook said. “It was a tough meet, but we’re waiting for the Big West to show what we can really do.”
The next competition for the Gauchos will be the Big West Championships, which will be held Feb. 23-26 in Long Beach.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. Jennifer Schwalb is tops in conference and so is Lindsay, but we have to have freshmen step up,” Wilson said. “We just have to get mentally focused and get ready to scrape for every point we can get.”