After traveling to Irvine, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles, UCSB swim and dive will be at home Saturday for the first time in three weeks to host a dual meet against UC San Diego.

The Gaucho men stand at 1-1 after splitting their meet with Hawaii and Cal Poly, while the women improved to 4-1 after taking two of three in last week’s quad meet at UCLA. Their opponent, UC San Diego, ranks atop the NCAA Division II standings with both the No. 1 women’s team and the No. 4 men’s team sitting at 1-0.

“[UC San Diego] is very well coached and they are some of the top teams in Division II,” Head Coach Gregg Wilson said. “Right off the bat they will have some kids that we will have to be very weary of.”

The UCSB men will have their hands full competing against senior Nicholas Korth who won the 200-yard breaststroke in the 2011 NCAA Championships as a freshman.

UCSB sophomore Andy Castilleja will have the task of competing against Korth in the breaststroke events, which should produce some of the most contested races of the day. In addition, the men’s 100 and 200 fly are also events to keep an eye on.

For the women, the freestyle and backstroke swims will supply some of the toughest challenges of the day.

“Our breaststroke is much better than theirs, but they come back with some very good backstroke [swimmers],” Wilson said. “Our sprint freestylers and backstroke swimmers will have to step up.”

Senior Andrea Ward will look to continue her dominance in competition coming off first place finishes in both the 200-yard butterfly and the 100-yard butterfly last Friday.

“My confidence is up there right now,” Ward said. “I’m confident that everyone is going to rise to the occasion and I look forward to everyone stepping up.”

Senior Sophia Yamauchi, junior Katie Records and senior Allie Knight will also lead the charge for the women. Records yielded one of her best performances of the year last Friday as she placed first in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard breaststroke with times of 2:17.10 and 1:04.05, respectively.

The UCSB divers, headed by sophomore Monika Terry for the women and freshman Lester Wright for the men, will again play a pivotal part in securing points for the Gauchos.

Action at Campus Pool is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m.

 

A version of this article appeared on page 6 of November 7, 2013’s print edition of The Daily Nexus.

Photo by Adam Lugowski of The Daily Nexus.

Print