Story Highlights
- The Cal Poly women’s swimming and diving team beat the UCSB Gauchos 177.5-117.5
- It was only the second time the Mustang women have defeated UCSB in a dual meet
- The Cal Poly men fell 167-121
The start of the men's 100 backstroke during the dual meet between Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara.
The Cal Poly Mustangs swimming and diving team hosted the rival UC Santa Barbara Gauchos for a dual meet Saturday at the Anderson Aquatics Center.
The Gaucho men were victorious over Cal Poly, winning by a score of 167-121. But the Mustang women beat UCSB for only the second time in history, winning 177.5-117.5.
The Mustang women got out to an early lead by winning the first event, the 200-yard medley relay. They beat out UCSB by just over three tenths of a second, and were in control for the rest of the meet.
“I talked to them all week about the power of winning and winning early,” Cal Poly head coach Tom Milich said.
One of the members of that relay and one of Cal Poly’s top scorers was kinesiology junior Angela Haven. Haven won the 100 butterfly with a time of 57.73 seconds. She was also the runner-up in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, posting times of 1:06.33 and 2:17.76, respectively.
“I feel really good. I’m really happy with how this season is coming together,” Haven said. “I am swimming so much faster than I did in my freshman year.”
The Gaucho that was able to keep Haven from winning all three of her individual events was sophomore Sophia Yamauchi. Yamauchi touched out Haven to win the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, and also the 400 individual medley. However, her performance was not enough to beat the deep Mustangs.
“We really pulled together as a team and showed some heart,” Haven said. “We won some events, but we also created some depth.”
Seniors Lacey Buck and Gloria Benefield were both double event winners for Cal Poly. Buck won the 1000 and 500 freestyles, while Benefield took the 100 and 200 backstrokes. She was also a member of the winning 200 medley relay team.
But one of the keys to the Mustang victory was their dominance in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. Cal Poly went one-two-three in both events. Liberal studies sophomore Sami McIntyre was the victor in both events, while kinesiology sophomore Meaghan O”Meara was the runner-up.
“I felt really good about my performance at the meet. There were only a couple dives where I felt I could have done better on, but over all I was very pleased,” O’Meara said. “The competition was tough and I knew our swim team needed all the points we could get. When we swept both the diving events I was really proud of my team.”
Cal Poly's Andrew Casier swims through the 100 butterfly at Saturday's dual meet.
Although the Cal Poly men did not pull off a win, they still had some good performances. Leading the charge was electrical engineering sophomore Konrad Antoniuk. The distance-swimmer won the 1000 freestyle by almost four seconds. He also won the 500 freestyle by touching out his teammate, economics sophomore Adrian Brynnel.
One of the most exciting races of the day was the final 400 freestyle relay. Cal Poly trailed the Gauchos for much of the race, but on the final 50 freshman Christian Renfro surged and pulled slightly ahead of Gaucho freshman Steven Ewoldt. The two battled on the last lap, but Ewoldt barely touched out Renfro by one one hundredth of a second to clinch the Gaucho win.
The Mustangs and Gauchos will clash in the pool again on February 4, in Santa Barbara.
Cal Poly will next compete in the Mustang Invitational, which they will host at the Anderson Aquatics Center this coming Friday and Saturday.
For complete results from the UCSB dual meet, click here.
