With several members of UCSB’s swim team recently recuperating from illnesses, traveling to a foreign pool played a huge factor in the men’s and women’s losses to UN Las Vegas on Saturday. Yet, the women’s squad found retribution by beating Colorado State in the women’s dual meet.

“It was a reality shot for us. [UNLV] had a very prepared team and we were playing at their pool,” Head Coach Gregg Wilson said. “We beat UNLV at their invitational, so they were looking for revenge. We looked great at workouts this week, but it was a struggle for us at the first half.”

The men lost 130-91 to UNLV despite their great performances and were not able to boost the team’s overall points. Senior captain Pat Cary won the 100 and 200 fly with times of 49.59 and 1:51.58. UCSB also took the first, second and third place in the 200 free. Freshman Scott Vogelgesang took first with 1:41.66, senior Myles Peck touched the wall less than a second behind him with a time 1:42.38, and freshman Joseph Plume took third with a time of 1:43.29. Sophomore Chris Good also won the 200 back with a time of 1:50.14.

“During half time, we had a team meeting. I said I don’t care what the score is. You have to swim and have to want to win.” Wilson said. “We came back in the second half and our racing was much better. When we got things going, it was great, but it was too late.”

The Gaucho women came extremely close to defeating UNLV, but fell short by one point, losing 121-120. Simultaneously, the women did have something to cheer about by dominating Colorado State 174-67. UCSB had strong performances from senior captain Jennifer Schwalb, who won her signature events, the 200 fly and the 200 IM with times of 2:04.83 and 2:06.36, respectively. Sophomore Liz Wagner won the 200 free in 1:52.67, and sophomore Nadia Dwidar came in second place with a time of 1:53.21. Junior Jessica Cruzat won the 200 back in 2:04.06 and also took second place in the 200 IM with a time of 2:08.61.

“Over the past week, we were sick. We had to travel a combination of 15 hours in a day and a half,” Schwalb said. “Over 50 percent of our team was sick, so I think that had to do a lot with our performance. We had a rough start and we lost some points. We went out there and everyone did their best and that’s all that matters.”

The Gauchos will take on Pacific this Saturday at Campus Pool and will be looking for a victory in what will be their last home meet before the Big West Championships.

“We are going to do so well. It’s our senior week and everyone will be pumped because we are back home,” Schwalb said. “It will bring added momentum.”