Several NCAA ‘B’ Cuts Posted on Day Two of Arena Invitational
LONG BEACH, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara swim teams had several fast swims on Friday evening, which marked the second day of competition at the 2011 Arena Invitational, which is being held at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool through Saturday.
The UCSB men are currently in second place with 615 points. They trail a powerful Stanford squad, which has run away with the meet by posting 1,510 points. The women are in sixth place with 379 points.
The women's team of Emma Hunt, Andrea Ward, Sophia Yamauchi and Anne Peanasky took sixth, which is the Gaucho women's top relay finish of the meet thus far. They posted a mark of 7:27.29.
Garrett Thompson and Kevin Ferguson had the best individual finishes for the day, as they took third in the 200 free and 100 breaststroke, respectively.
In the 200 free, Thompson led a group of seven Gauchos that qualified for evening swims in the event. The senior posted a time of 1:37.97. He was joined in the event's final by Norman, who took fourth in 1:38.93, and Peterson, who placed sixth in 1:39.91 after swimming a slightly faster mark of 1:39.77 in the preliminaries.
Ewoldt placed 15th (1:40.82), Andrew Dossa took 19th (1:41.44), Alex Campbell was 21st (1:42.05) and Andrew Latimer, who swam his best time of the day in prelims (1:43.59), took 32nd in 1:44.09.
In the 100 breast, Ferguson posted an NCAA 'B' cut time of 54.90 on his way to a third-place finish. Evan Simoni placed seventh in 56.36 seconds. In the bonus final, Christian Bedell won the heat with a mark of 57.87, which placed him 25th overall. Chris Leon (58.30) and Tyler Jean (58.36) placed 27th and 28th, respectively.
On the women's side, Yamauchi posted an NCAA 'B' cut of 1:02.43 in the 100 breast prelims and then finished in seventh place during the finals (1:02.87). Katie Records finished in eighth behind her teammate with a mark of 1:03.24. Carissa Metcalf placed 15th in 1:04.44 (1:04.16 in prelims) and Paige Bradley came in 16th with a mark of 1:04.73 (1:04.03 prelims). Erica Taylor placed 29th in the event, posting a time of 1:05.67.
The Gauchos had seventh-place finishes in both the women and men's 200 individual medley. Allie Knight finished in 4:21.26 for the UCSB women before Randy Aakhus placed seventh in the men's final in 3:56.03 (3:55.79 prelims).
Bradley took 16th with a time of 4:28.34 (4:25.80 prelims) in the women's consolations and Taylor Munk placed 21st in 4:29.40. In the men's 200 IM consolations, Simoni won his heat with a time of 4:00.60, taking 17th overall.
In the 100 butterfly, Ward was the top Gaucho finisher, taking seventh in 54.07 seconds, which is an NCAA 'B' cut. Emma Hunt, meanwhile, placed 32nd in 56.69 seconds, adding .04 seconds to her prelims time.
Wade Allen won the men's consolation heat and placed ninth with his mark of 48.91 seconds. Max Horrell came in 13th in 49.42 seconds, Dylan Templeton was 19th in 50.63, Bob Hwang took 20th in 50.83 (50.76 prelims) and Parker Bovenberg was 22nd in 50.91 seconds (50.88 prelims).
Rounding out the individual events was the 100 backstroke. Ryan Garcia finished 11th with a time of 50.58 after swimming a slightly faster mark of 50.31 in the prelims. Hwang took 29th in 53.80 seconds. For the women, Kendall Neely represented the Gauchos with a 32nd place finish after going 57.98. She posted a time of 57.28 in the prelims.
Friday's finals had begun with the 200 medley relay in which the men's squad consisting of Ferguson, Simoni, Horrell and Peterson placed fourth in 1:30.67. The women's team of Yamauchi, Records, Ward and Neely took eighth in 1:42.96.
UCSB will wrap up action at the Arena Invitational on Saturday evening. The final day's program will consist of the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay.