UCSB Swim Teams Take First and Second at Utah Tech Invite

The UCSB men’s swimming team took first place and the women finished second at the three-day Utah Tech Invite.

The Gaucho men scored 1,335 points to finish ahead of UC San Diego (997). On the women’s side, UCSD won 748-681.

There was no stopping the men’s squad as they started the day claiming the top four spots in the 1650 Free. It was Taber daCosta (15:14.29) who came out on top followed by Matt Vinh (15:50.23), Jude DiStefano (15:51.18), and Kennan Hotchkiss(15:51.60).

Moving on to the sprints, Kyle Brill and Matthew Driscoll took first and second place in the 200 Back, touching at 1:43.11 and 1:44.70 respectively. The 100 Free and 200 Breast also saw a 1-2-3 finish by the Gaucho men. For the 100 Free, it was in the order of Sean Gutowski (43.38), Austin Sparrow(44.08), and Justin Wong (44.62). The 200 Breast saw Alec Cullen (1:56.85) in first, Corban McIntosh (1:57.94) in second, and Brill (1:58.77) in third. Dominic Falcon and Jack Gilespie took the top two spots in the 200 Fly with times of 1:44.98 and 1:49.09 respectively.

The Gaucho men ended the day as dominant as they started with the ‘A’ team taking first in the 400 Free Relay and the ‘B’ team taking third. The ‘A’ team, consisting of Driscoll, Wong, Gutowski, and Sparrow, touched at 2:53.96. The ‘B’ team consisted of Brill, Henry Adamson, Eric Gabbassof, and Zachary Tamusaitis who finished with a time of 3:00.13.

The women’s squad also saw successful performances on the last day. Isabella Martinez- Spencer finished second in the 1650 Free with a time of 16:57.30. The 200 Fly was an especially successful event for the women with Samantha Banos (1:59.04) in first and Maelynn Lawrence (1:59.96) in second. Other individual highlights include Hazel Derr who finished third in the 200 Back (1:56.72) and Nina Statler who took fifth in the 100 Free (50.92)

The 400 Free Relay, swam by Statler, Hannah Joseph, Reagan Nibarger, and Banos took the fifth spot, touching with a time of 3:25.46

UCSB swim returns to competition at the U.S. Open at Greensboro, N.C. on Nov 30.