Swimming and diving sweep UCSB

The USC men’s and women’s swim teams both found success and kicked off the new decade powerfully this weekend by sweeping the UCSB Gauchos in a home meet. The Women of Troy defeated the Gauchos with a total score of 156-92, while the Trojan men swept the UCSB swimmers over the course of two meets, 140-44 in the first and 136-47 in the second.

With the No. 5 women’s record now 8-0 and the No. 9 men’s 6-1, the Trojan teams did well to prove themselves as teams to watch out for. On the men’s side, the USC swimmers easily overcame the Gauchos and won first place in the majority of the meets’ events. Equally impressive, the women’s team had five swimmers—seniors Lyndsay DePaul and Presley Bard, sophomores Haley Anderson and Christel Simms and freshman Stina Gardell—who each won two events apiece, ensuring the Women of Troys’ victory as well.

The Jan. 8 meet marked the first time that USC met with the UCSB Gauchos since the UCSB men’s team joined the Pac-10 last fall. The Gaucho’s women’s team is in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

With this meet, the last home one for the men’s team, the Trojan teams added another victory to their already successful season against the unranked Gauchos. At the beginning of December, the Trojan swimmers went to compete at Nationals–one of their most important competitions–but not only did they compete, they brought home multiple titles and broke numerous records.

Swimmers like freshman Vladimir Morozov, who broke USC’s school record in the 50y and 100y three times at Nationals, and junior Katinka Hosszu, who walked away from Nationals with four titles, proved essential this weekend and at meets earlier this season.

Now that the men’s and women’s teams have defeated the Gauchos, their next opportunity to compete will come on Friday at the SCS Grand Prix in Long Beach and will continue until next Monday. The diving team will also compete this weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, at the UCLA Diving Invitational.