After a two-week hiatus, the UCSB men’s and women’s swimming teams will go on the road to Washington for the Husky Invitational, which starts today. The meet will feature eight teams in the CollegeSwimming.com Top 25, so UCSB will have to push the pedal to the metal to garner a win.

Teams ranging from #4 Michigan (6-1 overall for men), #16 USC (1-1 overall for men, 1-2 for women), #11 Cal (3-0 for men), Washington (3-3 overall for men, 4-2 overall for women) and Oregon State (1-2 overall for women) will participate in the invitational, which will continue until Saturday evening. The Gauchos (3-1 overall for men, 4-2 overall for women) are more than ready to step up their game.

“We have brought our elite group, 12 men and women, so we are ready to show them what we got,” Head Coach Gregg Wilson said. “We want to give the best effort possible to try and get kids to qualify for the NCAA tournament. This meet will give us a chance to see where we stand, because we are going to face great teams like Michigan and Cal. It will also be an opportunity to test our relays and see if we can keep up with the big dogs.”

Junior Chris Good has been on a roll for the Gauchos, winning two individual events in the past two meets. Throughout the season, Good plans to break his school record in the 200 back, which currently stands at 1:46.79, and the Husky Invitational seems like a good place to put this into effect.

The Gauchos also have secret weapons in juniors Jeff Sudbury and Nadia Dwidar, sophomores Naomi Javanifard and Danny McClary and freshman Brittany Borowitz, who have all executed stellar performances in the pool.

“We don’t have a lot of distance, so we are going to rely on our sprint relays,” Wilson said. “We are very confident that we will do well. The kids are psyched and ready to go. I feel like this meet will be a very good indication of where we stand after all the hard work and prior meets we’ve had. It will let us know if we are at a good place or if we have to push ourselves even harder.”

The Gauchos will get the weekend started with the preliminaries, which start today at 9:30 a.m.