With clouds overhead and a cool breeze ripping through Campus Pool, the UCSB men’s swim and dive team fell to No. 11 Stanford. The final score of the shortened dual meet was 108-91.
With the loss, the Gauchos wrap up their season with a final dual meet record of 6-2. Stanford remains spotless on the year, improving their dual meet record to 7-0 with wins against both UCSB and No. 6 USC this weekend.
“The meet turned out to be a better meet than I had hoped it would be,” Head Coach Gregg Wilson said. “I was encouraged by almost every single race we did out there, and our times were very fast.”
Stanford finished first in eight of the 11 events on Friday. Junior David Nolan proved vital in the win, notching first place in both the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.67 and the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 49.22. Nolan also contributed to a Stanford win in the 200-yard medley relay, finishing with a time of 1:31.26.
Sophomore Gary Umbach also contributed two individual event wins for Stanford, timing in first in the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard backstroke with times of 1:50.79 and 50.51, respectively.
For UCSB, senior Ryan Hanni continued to produce strong sprint freestyle swims. Hanni finished just one-tenth of a second behind Nolan in the 50-yard freestyle to take second place and would go on to take first place in the 100-yard freestyle, touching at a time of 45.42.
Senior Co-Captain Lucas Norman also put together an admirable performance finishing in second place in both the 100- and the 200-yard freestyle with times of 45.90 and 1:41.37, respectively.
“It’s a little different swimming against Stanford because you know they’re such a great team,” Norman said. “However, you must keep the same attitude in competition and know you’re just as good as they are.”
Sophomores Mickey Mowry and Andy Castilleja also put together a great meet. Mowry came in second in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 50.35, and Castilleja placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 56.23. With the help of senior Randy Aakhus and sophomore Lucas Paulauskas, Mowry and Castilleja combined to take second in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:32.27.
The Gauchos ended the meet on a high note, as they took first in the final 400-yard freestyle relay event. Junior Wade Allen and senior Alex Campbell joined Norman and Hanni to take the top spot with a time of 3:01.78.
As the sun begins to set on this season, the UCSB men’s swim and dive team have nothing but confidence and pride as they head into the final leg of their competition.
“The season has gone great and we could not have asked for it to go any better,” Norman said. “We have stayed positive throughout and are coming off a high from racing Stanford. We will head into the Pac-12 championships being ready to go.”
The UCSB men will head to Washington for its next action in the Pac-12 diving championships to take place on Feb. 26 and the Pac-12 swimming championships to take place on March 5.
A version of this article appeared on page 5 of Feb. 10th’s print edition of the Daily Nexus.
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