The UC San Diego men’s and women’s swim teams dropped a pair of dual meets to NCAA Division I foe UC Santa Barbara at UCSB’s Campus Pool on Friday afternoon.
Scores were 151-103 on the men’s side and 156-101 for the women.
The UCSD men and women each fell to an even 1-1 on the year. The UCSB men improved to 2-1, while the Gaucho women are now 3-1.
Triton swimmers turned in the fastest times in four of 28 combined events on the day. Two of them came from true freshmen, as Stephanie Sin went 10:26.84 in the meet’s longest race, the 1000 freestyle, and Julia Toronczak(Santee/West Hills HS), touched the wall first in 2:04.84 in the 200 backstroke. Sin’s mark in her first collegiate 1000 was an NCAA consideration qualifier, while Toronczak shaved more than a second off of her season best in the 200 back from her Oct. 25 debut.
“Stephanie led from the first 25 (yards) and pretty much dominated the field,” said UCSD women’s head coachCorrie Falcon. “With her second (place) in the 500 (free, in 5:07.28), it was a very nice meet for her.”
Jaclyn Amog went 57.36 to win the 100 butterfly, achieving an NCAA B cut of her own. Junior co-captain Paul Liwas the lone first-place finisher on the men’s side, going 4:36.60 in the 500 free. That was good for another B cut.
“Paul was head-to-head with the top Santa Barbara swimmers, and given the fact that he was coached last year by Matt (Macedo), there was a bit of a rivalry,” added Falcon. “He started to pull ahead at the 400 mark and it was a very exciting finish.”
Macedo was the UCSD men’s head coach for the past three seasons prior to accepting the position of associate head coach at UCSB over the summer.
Eva Chen, like Amog a fourth-year senior, got her consideration qualifier in the 100 breaststroke with a third-place finish in 1:05.04. Sophomore Austine Lee earned a B cut in second place in the 50 free (24.05), as did the 200 free relay of sophomore Natalie Tang, freshman Angie Phetbenjakul, Lee and Amog in its season debut (1:36.86).
On the men’s side, sophomore newcomer Michael Cohn (Solana Beach/Grossmont College) got closer to his consideration qualifier in the 200 back, placing second in a season-best 1:51.72, just .3 seconds behind Gaucho Billy Mullis (1:51.42).
All told, the Tritons combined for seven NCAA consideration qualifying marks, with six by the women and Li’s 500 for the men. Sin has reached B standards in three events already after just two dual competitions to begin her career, with Friday’s 1000 added to the 200 free and 500 free from UCSD’s season opener on Oct. 25.
“I’m really, really happy with how we swam,” concluded Falcon. “We lost the meet, but we won a few events, and were faster than we were last year in this meet in all but two events. It feels like both the men and women are on track.”
The UCSD swimmers are now idle from competition to prepare for their top early-season meet annually, the A3 Performance Invitational. The event was formerly called the Arena Invitational. It will take place for a second straight year at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, with UCSD again serving as the host, Nov. 20-22.
The Triton divers are in action next Friday, Nov. 14, in Redlands for the Bulldog Diving Invite. The meet gets underway at 9 a.m. with the women’s one-meter and men’s three-meter springboard events.
