Friday, October 9
Santa Barbara, CA
Saint Mary's College of California
at
UC Santa Barbara
So. Gabriel Benitez
SWIM | Gaels Battle Gauchos in First Ever Dual Meet
10/10/2026 7:19:00 PM | Swimming
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Saint Mary's swim team went down to Southern California this weekend to battle with UC Santa Barbara in its first ever dual meet in program history. The Gaels fell on both sides of the two-day event, W: L, 69-226 | M: L, 98-198, but walked away with five event winners, including sweeps in the 200 Breaststroke and 200 IM to highlight the weekend.
The Gaels competed in 32 total events at Dos Pueblos High School on Friday and Saturday. Junior transfer Sawyer Jones won his first event of the 2026-27 season, winning the 50 Yard Free by just a tenth of a second with a time of 20.89 seconds. Santiago Leiva was the next best finisher in the event with a time of 21.52 seconds good for third place.
Saint Mary's capped off the two-day event with sweeps in the 200 Breast. Junior Samantha Fehr won the women's side of the 200 Breaststroke with a time of 2:29.27 in another narrow finish with UC Santa Barbara's Remy Harrison coming in second at 2:29.62. Serbian freshman Ilija Sosic won his first collegiate event on the men's side with a time of 2:05.36 while fellow teammate Julian Tucker recorded a second place time of 2:07.65.
The final event sweep for the Gaels came in the 200 IM with Eliza Taylor and Lincoln Jones winning both sides of the race. Taylor clocked in at 2:09.33 to hold off Gaucho swimmer Elaine Birkhold. On the men's side, Jones won his first event as a Gael after starting his collegiate career at Mt. San Antonio College in Southern California. The Needles native recorded a winning time of 1:54.86 to complete the 200 IM sweep for Saint Mary's.
Full meet results can be found HERE.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's will return to the pool in another dual meet against UC Santa Cruz on Friday, October 23. Additional meet information can be found at smcgaels.com.
Be sure to follow your Gaels on Facebook, Instagram, and X to get all the latest Saint Mary's athletics updates and information.
#GaelsRise
The Gaels competed in 32 total events at Dos Pueblos High School on Friday and Saturday. Junior transfer Sawyer Jones won his first event of the 2026-27 season, winning the 50 Yard Free by just a tenth of a second with a time of 20.89 seconds. Santiago Leiva was the next best finisher in the event with a time of 21.52 seconds good for third place.
Saint Mary's capped off the two-day event with sweeps in the 200 Breast. Junior Samantha Fehr won the women's side of the 200 Breaststroke with a time of 2:29.27 in another narrow finish with UC Santa Barbara's Remy Harrison coming in second at 2:29.62. Serbian freshman Ilija Sosic won his first collegiate event on the men's side with a time of 2:05.36 while fellow teammate Julian Tucker recorded a second place time of 2:07.65.
The final event sweep for the Gaels came in the 200 IM with Eliza Taylor and Lincoln Jones winning both sides of the race. Taylor clocked in at 2:09.33 to hold off Gaucho swimmer Elaine Birkhold. On the men's side, Jones won his first event as a Gael after starting his collegiate career at Mt. San Antonio College in Southern California. The Needles native recorded a winning time of 1:54.86 to complete the 200 IM sweep for Saint Mary's.
Very impressive weekend of racing for the Gaels" said head coach Ellie Monobe. "Coming off of a challenging training block, we were tired going into this meet and seeing the speed and finishing our races strongly puts our team in a promising position for the second half of our fall competitions. Going up against a veteran, championship-caliber team and winning a couple of events is a great feat. I'm incredibly proud of how we performed.
Full meet results can be found HERE.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's will return to the pool in another dual meet against UC Santa Cruz on Friday, October 23. Additional meet information can be found at smcgaels.com.
Be sure to follow your Gaels on Facebook, Instagram, and X to get all the latest Saint Mary's athletics updates and information.
#GaelsRise
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Saturday, October 10
Saturday, October 10
Saturday, October 10
Saturday, October 10
