10. Technical rubber suits sure made a difference in our sport but damaged everyone financially during this difficult economy period. Why do we pay for more seconds to be dropped? Isn't this a sport that the success is from all the hard work? Gauchos set 12 new school records last season. However, Jessica Schwalb already added a new school record in the 400 IM this season so far.
9. Only 2 injuries were from non-swimming related activities.
8. New logo has 5 colors = more cost to make team gears and attires. Help!
7. Women's team had the highest GPA in the UCSB athletic department for the 5 consecutive terms.
6. Anne Marie May became the first swimmer in the Gregg Wilson's era to be ranked first in the country.
5. Winning the men's and women's Big West Conference Championships.
4. Earning 2 All-American honors. (5 NCAA qualifiers)
3. Katy Freeman making the 2009-2010 USA National team (competed at Duel in the Pool).
2. Establishing 16 NCAA consideration times in December for the 2009-2010 season.
1. Finishing the year with the 0-1-2 set. Thank you, Danny for your help. Racing in practice and helping each other on were so fun!
Gauchos performed better and better each day and today was best of all winning the team titles for the meet (women's meet was very close) and adding six more NCAA consideration times. Many Gauchos were in the final heat of events, so they sure made coaches work hard while they worked on swimming fast.
Women's Meet (top 3 finishes)
UCSB 2177
UNLV 2159
Cal Poly 1595
Men's Meet (top 3 finishes)
UCSB 2262
UNLV 1811
Cal Poly 1391.5
NCAA Consideration Times:
Timmy Freeman (Men's 200 Breat) 1:59.60
Men's 400 Free Relay 2:58.46
Women's 400 Free Relay 3:23.34
Anne Marie May (Women's 100 Free) 49.44 and 49.74 leading off the relay
Emily Adamczyk (Women's 200 Breast) 2:16.34
Women's 200 Back Final
Lane 5: Katie Stover
Lane 6: Jessica Schwalb
Women's 100 Free Final
Lane 4: Anne Marie May
Lane 5: Kendall Neely
Lane 6: Courtney Bauer
Lane 7: Sasza Lohrey
Names, you can yell!!! I know you wish you were swimming this with the other fellow Gauchos.
The second day of the Finis College Invitational was highlighted by four NCAA consideration times and one school record. This was a much better day as a team collectively. Both teams stands for the first place for team standings. Wonderful parents and families of the Gaucho swimmers are helping our swimmers in many ways. Thank you to all who supports our program.
NCAA Consideration Times from today:
-Tim Freeman (Men's 100 Breast) 55.25 - currently top 10 in the country
-Kevin Ferguson (Men's 100 Back) 48.84 - currently top 25 in the country
-Jessica Schwalb (Women's 400 IM) 4:17.58 - school record also currently top 30 in the country
-Naomi Javanifard (Women's 100 Fly) 54.43 - currently top 40 in the country
Wonderful Gaucho Supporters with Lots of Love!
The Morris Family - Where is Billy?
Billy, is that you sitting with the team? Are you paying attention to Gregg? If you are a Gaucho wanna be although you are a Bruin, you must pay attention during the team meeting just like the Gauchos. Wait, why are they not looking at Gregg?
Senior Co-Team captain, Jessica Schwalb, lowered her personal best time in the prelim session this morning and lowered our school record by nearly three seconds in the final heat this evening. Jessica talks about her reactions after each race today and what is next for her senior season.
Gauchos finished off their final exams for the fall quarter and quickly drove down to Long Beach for the mid season championship meet. Despite the stressful week of final exams and travel, the Gauchos started out the first day very well with some NCAA consideration times in the men's and women's 200-yard freestyle relays, men's 400-yard medley relay, Anne Marie's 50-yard freestyle, and Chris Peterson's 50-yard freestyle. Eric got our swimmers' favorite ice bath ready for the meet this morning. (see the above picture)
Gaucho men and women started out the meet with a great cheer to set themselves with some excitement. Coming off of the finals exams, one of the tasks we have to accomplish is to refocus and perform at the highest level.
NCAA Consideration Times from today:
-Anne Marie May (Women's 50 Free) 22.34 - currently ranked first in the country
-Women's 200 Free Relay 1:31.94 - currently ranked top 10 in the country
-Chris Peterson (Men's 50 Free) 20.16 - currently ranked top 15 in the country
-Men's 200 Free Relay 1:20.98 - currently ranked top 15 in the country
-Men's 400 Medley Relay 3:17.40 - currently ranked top 15 in the country
Women's 200-yard freestyle relay: Anne Marie May, Kendall Neely, Naomi Javanifard, Courtney Bauer
Gauchos: Lane 3&6
Men's 200-yard freestyle relay: Chris Peterson, Kevin Kuhn, Kevin Ferguson, Ryan Hanni
Gauchos: Lane 3
Women's 400-yard medley relay: Katie Stover, Emily Adamcyzk, Naomi Javanifard, Anne Marie May
Gauchos: Lane 4&5
Men's 400-yard medley relay: Kevin Ferguson, Timmy Freeman, Danny McClary, Chris Peterson
Gauchos: Lane 2&3
As a strength of the G-fund (aka Gaucho Fund), the Living Scholar annual giving program was formed last year, and the first opening dinner was held at the UCSB Crowin Pavilion on Thursday, December 1. Each Living Scholar is paired up with the Living Scholar donor, and they have shared their joy at the event. Each head coaches were introduced and each Living Scholar introduced themselves on the podium. Many of the well-known alumni attended this event (meaning they give back to UCSB as a Living Scholar donor) along with the chancellor.
From left: Ryan Hanni, Katie Stover, Max Horrell
from left: Noah Smith (men's water polo), Dave Hendrickson (Henny), Ryan Hanni
Each Living Scholar donor were given the athlete's portfolio.
Results
Gauchos finished strong in the last day of the U.S. Short Course Nationals. Both Anne Marie and Jeff swam the 100 free while Katy and Timmy swam the 200 breaststroke today.
Four Gauchos: Timmy Freeman, Anne Marie May, Katy Freeman, and Jeff Sudbury, are competing at the U.S. Short Course Nationals in Federal Way starting from today. Anne Marie tied for 4th and Jeff placed 9th in the 50 free. Anne Marie is holding a bag of fortune cookies which was presented at the award ceremony. All four of them are swimming the 100 breaststroke tomorrow.
As we are reaching for Halloween, the Gaucho swimmers are getting ready for a swim meet at Cal Poly. Naomi Javanifard (lady bug) and Sasza Lohrey (bumble bee) enjoyed their morning practice being something other than swimmers. The main set was a quality kicking set: basically ... move your legs as fast as you can!!!
Famed Sports Storyteller Chronicles Dramatic Stories of Six American Athletes and Their Quest for Olympic Glory
Monday October 19th at 7:00pm EST and PCT
LOS ANGELES, Ca.
SHOWTIME presents a rare opportunity to relive one of the most dramatic and memorable Olympics in recent history in the original documentary BUD GREENSPAN PRESENTS: BEIJING 2008 – AMERICA’S OLYMPIC GLORY. With behind-the-scenes footage and a poignant narrative, this film presents Greenspan's signature brand of powerful storytelling set in Beijing, China – a land with a storied past and a vibrant future.
BUD GREENSPAN PRESENTS: BEIJING 2008 – AMERICA’S OLYMPIC GLORYwill premiere on Showtime on Monday October 19th starting at 7:00pm EST/PCT.The two hour film features the stories of 6 American Olympians including swim team captainJason Lezakwhosethrilling world best final leg (46.06) in the 4 x 100 Freestyle relay earned the United States an upset victory over France. Gymnast Nastia Liukin, coached by father Valeri, a 1988 gold medalist for the Soviet Union, continued the family’s Olympic tradition by winning the All-Around title 20 years later for the United States. Brenda Villa, a three-time Olympian in water polo, grew up in the Latino community of Commerce, California and captained her team to their third Olympic medal. The Women’s 8-Oared crew had not won at the Olympics since 1984 but returned to greatness in Beijing defeating archrival Romania to capture their long awaited gold medal. Keeth and Erinn Smart, siblings from Brooklyn, New York and students at the Peter Westbrook Foundation since 1991; entered Beijing having overcome the loss of both parents and serious illness to win silver medals in the men’s team saber and women’s team foil competitions. Dawn Harper and Lolo Jones is the emotional story of two hurdlers’ journeys to the same starting line in Beijing and the differing but inspiring results they achieved in the race they had spent a lifetime preparing for.
The film marks the 12th in a series of Olympic Games films by Greenspan and Cappy Productions, Inc. His previous Olympic documentaries beginning with 1984 Summer games in Los Angeles have chronicled every Olympics (except for 1992 Albertville) through the 2006 Torino Winter Games.Greenspan has been called the foremost writer/producer/director of sports films and one of the world's leading sports historians. His numerous awards include seven Emmys®, the George Foster Peabody Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Directors Guild of America Life Time Achievement Award, the International Fair Play Award and the coveted "Olympic Order" by International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch for his contribution to furthering the Olympic movement. In 2004, Bud was inducted into the United States Olympic Committee Hall of Fame for his body of work and his humanistic approach to filming the Olympic Games.
Katie Reeves and Katie Tomkinson (Tom Tom) are figuring out how they can prevent their injuries. Reeves rolled her ankle boxing that morning and Tom Tom hurt her shoulder lifting weights. Here is what they thought might work with their rusty body parts.
The Gaucho swim team finished the successful 2009 fall training camp with the second NES (National Event Series). NES consists of
1700 free (1650+50free)
800 IM (200 of each stroke)
400 IM (100 of each stroke)
400 IM
200IM
500 free.
It is a total of 4000 yards. The apple in the picture belongs to the swimmer who had the fastest times for both the first and second NES (they were one week apart). The slowest time for both men and women were by far the fastest (by more than 2 minutes) as well as the average of the team. Nice job, Gauchos!
2008 U.S. Olympic Trial qualifiers: Katie Ure and Naomi Javanifard were once gymnasts. They don't talk about outfits, but they tend to match their attire often especially in the weight room. It was a perfect look for the routine they came up.
Most of the people's brains are formed when they come to college. Some are good at numbers while others are very visual. For some people, 100 feet and 100 inches seemed the same when they are in the water and swimming near the pier. For some others, Gregg's words don't stay in their brain. Even though fishermen were yelling at the Gaucho swimmers: "someone got a shark an hour ago," the Gauchos competed the Ocean Swim = a mile swim + a mile run and made the fishermen very unhappy.Picture: from left Tyla Willment (2nd tie) Monica Finnoy (2nd tie) Mitchell Long (winner) Tim Freeman (2nd place) Carri Cook (winner)
Video taped by coach Eric Fehr. His comments were something to be shared in the future. Eric, you are very talented. I hear those film studies major students might need another class because their class just got canceled two days ago due to the budget cut.
Gauchos played ultimate frisbee this morning in foggy Santa Barbara weather. The match was a team of freshmen and seniors verses sophomores and juniors. UCSB hasn't started classes yet, so they were by themselves in a big intramural field. They blended to the fog while playing that it almost looked like they were in a movie scene. The Freniors won the both men's and women's matches.
“Champions aren´t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision.”
-Muhammad Ali
Our women's team started a morning training session on Wednesday at 8. The first hour was the 4th session of boxing partnered up for the first time. The second hour was the spinning at Recreation Center. Women's boxing is definitely up in coming for a trend.
Gauchos finished up the first week of training with a morning practice of some drilling, kicking, stroke specialties. During a kick set, we did a countdown going 50's @1:01. The idea is that you always have to come in by the top (or where you started/pushed off) and go a second faster by each 50. Two swimmers: Mariana Prutton and Ryan Garcia did 22x50's @1:01 which they descended to 38 seconds.
Anne Marie May had this paddle (AMM Special) for 3 years. She is finally strong enough to break a paddle. In this picture, she was supposed to show a crack instead of breaking it. Can you see how surprised she was?
We went to Goleta Beach for our annual first Friday team activities. The first activity was Capture the Flags which included a little bit of wrestling on sand. The water was warmer than usual (approx. 68 degrees), and everyone was able to swim through while some decided to overachieve by swimming a wrong course and added some yardage. While those were figuring out where they needed to go, Courtney Bauer, a senior sprinter, took the chance to take a lead and manage to finish first. Remember, you can always hope for a great finish of a race, and a chance could come to you.
Winners of Capture the Flags: Kendall Neely and Dan Morris (2nd years in a row)
Winners of Run-Swim-Run: Joe Plume and Courtney Bauer
The first week of the season is reviewing four strokes each day. We went over all four strokes now, but can you guess which swimmers are in the pictures? (hint: they are not butterflyers.)
UC Santa Barbara is located 100 miles (approx. 160km) north from Los Angels. The campus is on the beach, and the climate stays around 75 degrees in fahrenheit (24 degrees in celsius) all year with some California sunshine. The breeze coming from the mountain and the ocean brings peaceful smell to Santa Barbara.
