UC-Santa Barbara v. UC-Davis

DAVIS, California, February 1. SENIOR Russell Taylor set two pool records with wins in both breaststroke events, and sophomores Heidi Kucera and Daniel Donnelly each had pool records in their respective events, but conference favorite UC Santa Barbara won a combined 19 events to sweep UC Davis in a Big West swimming and diving dual at Schaal Aquatics Center.

The Gauchos, who were picked to win the men's and women's conference titles in the preseason coaches' poll, defeated the women 170-123 while their men's team claimed a 156-138 win. The Aggie women are now 12-5 duals while the men's team is 6-3.

UC Davis honored 16 seniors during the final home meet of the season. Taylor had the most impressive performance in his final home competition as he set new pool records with times of 56.80 in the 100-yard breaststroke and 2:04.74 in the 200 breast. He becomes the first swimmer to go sub-57 in the 100 breast at Schaal. He also finished second in the 200 individual medley (1:53.68) and swam the breaststroke leg on the Aggies' second-place 200 medley relay (1:33.64).

The men's team entered the final two events tied with the Gauchos with 129 points. UC Santa Barbara would finish 1-3-4 in the 200 IM and 1-3 in the 400 freestyle relay to earn the 18-point victory.

Donnelly also won two events for the men's team and in the process set a new pool record in the 100 butterfly with his time of 49.94, which is the first sub-50 time at Schaal. Donnelly swept the fly events with a win in the 200 in 1:50.55. He also swam the fly leg of the 200 medley alongside Taylor.

Freshmen Adam Borchard and Matt Herman led an Aggie sweep in the distance events in dominant fashion. Borchard claimed the 500 free in 4:33.71, over two seconds faster then second place, while Herman won the 1,000 free in 9:23.05, which was almost a full second faster than his next competitor.

Kucera led the women's squad with a pool-record time of 2:19.06 in the 100 breast. She also scored a second-place finish in the 200 IM (2:09.07).

Senior Ashley Cayford helped UC Davis sweep the breaststroke events with her winning time of 1:04.18 in her final home competition. Freshman Linda Hermann rounded out the Aggie swimming wins with a top time of 5:02.04 in the 500 free.

The Gauchos do not have a diving team and therefore gave up 32 points in those events. Senior Krysta Chaldekas capped the solid run of seniors in their final home competitions with wins on both 3-meter (255.40) and 1-meter (252.00) boards.

For the men, freshman Paul Navo was the winner on both boards with a low board score of 255.40 and a high board total of 260.55.

UC Santa Barbara also established new pool records in the women's 200 medley (1:44.10), women's 50 free (23.71), men's 200 backstroke (1:50.60) and women's 100 fly (56.44) to bring the total number of records to eight on the day.

Along with Taylor, Cayford and Chaldekas, the other Aggie seniors honored on the day were divers Stephen Lee, Whitney Burton and Kevin Reagle, and swimmers Jill Olson, Jessica Lee, Jennifer Ginsberg, Melanie Covert, Toki Burke, Jason Kim, Lars Rockholm, Kyle Leto, Nik Kemp and Bergen Beck.

Special thanks to UC-Davis for contributing this report.

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