The UCSD Swimming and Diving teams visited UC Santa Barbara for a duel meet on Saturday to face a Gaucho team whom they had never beaten. The Tritons came close, but couldn’t muster the endurance, and both the men and women fell to the Gauchos.
“We were looking to upset them,” junior captain Michael Lorch said, “but the guys lost by about 30 points and the women lost as well.”
The Triton men fell by a close margin of 161.5-137.5, and the women lost 175.5-118.5.
Thanks in part to the outstanding performance of their diving teams, the Tritons came closer to beating the Gauchos than they have in recent years. The men’s and women’s diving teams won both the 1-meter and the 3-meter diving, and freshman Luke Calkins and sophomore Tyler Runsten both qualified for nationals.
But the Tritons’ performance fell off in the water. The men won four events while the women won five, but the depth of their UCSB opponents was too much for the Tritons, and the slim lead they accrued from the diving events quickly evaporated.
On the men’s side, freshman Nick Korth continued his outstanding start to his collegiate career, taking first in both the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-breast stroke, with a time of 56.95 and 2:04.75, respectively. The 2:04.75 is two seconds faster than his nearest competition. The Tritons also took the top three spots in the 100 freestyle, with junior Griffin Bracke winning with a time of 59.94.
On the women’s side, All-American junior captain Alex Henley continued her early season domination, winning the 200-individual medley (2:08.56) and taking second in the 200 butterfly and 1000 freestyle. Freshman Anji Shakya also delivered a first place finish in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:53.38.
“We expected to do a little better than we did,” Lorch said, “and we were a little disappointed by the result, but a lot of people actually swam faster than they ever swam in a duel meet and it puts us in good position for Arena Cup coming up.”
The men take next week off as the women travel to University of San Diego. In two weeks, both teams will travel to Long Beach for the Arena Invitational, which will include some of the top teams in California.
