Friday, October 23
Santa Cruz, CA
3:00 PM
Saint Mary's College of California
at
UC Santa Cruz
10/23/2026 9:40:00 PM | Swimming
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The Saint Mary's swim team recorded the program's first ever dual meet victory on Friday, defeating Santa Cruz on the men's side 146-140. The Gaels were behind the eight ball on both the men's and women's side without the dive component of the meet but were able to get the win on the men's side 146-140, before suffering a narrow defeat on the women's side, 162-130.
The men's squad won a combined nine events to pull-off history on Friday and the program's first ever dual meet victory. Eight different swimmers would capture event victories including sweeps in the 100 and 200 yard Free from Sawyer Jones and Samuil Danailov, and both the 100 and 200 yard Backstroke from Lincoln Jones and Theo Schiesari. Jack Culberson was the program's first ever Department Student-Athlete of the Week winner after his performance at the PAC Invite earlier this month and won by a hefty margin in the 1000 yard free with a final time of 9:49.74, more than ten seconds ahead of UC Santa Cruz's second place finisher. The likes of Giorgio Sportaro, Samuil Danailov, Olivier Petre, and Sawyer Jones added eleven big points at the end of the day with a first place finish in the 400 yard freestyle relay, recording a time of 3:01.39.
Junior transfer Eliza Taylor led the women's side with three event victories including the 100 yard breaststroke, 100 yard free and the 200 yard IM. Taylor alone accounted for 27 points with her three wins as the Gaels tied the Banana Slugs at 130 points but fell simply on the dive portion of the dual. Samantha Cummins also won a pair of events for Saint Mary's, claiming the 200 yard butterfly and 200 yard breaststroke. The Gaels also dominated the 1000 yard free with the top two finishers. Madison Poloni won the event with a time of 10:58.73 while Samira Semaan finished in second at 11:05.43.
Full meet results can be found HERE
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's will head back to the East Bay and take on Cal in its second dual meet of the weekend on Saturday. Additional meet information and results 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 men's squad won a combined nine events to pull-off history on Friday and the program's first ever dual meet victory. Eight different swimmers would capture event victories including sweeps in the 100 and 200 yard Free from Sawyer Jones and Samuil Danailov, and both the 100 and 200 yard Backstroke from Lincoln Jones and Theo Schiesari. Jack Culberson was the program's first ever Department Student-Athlete of the Week winner after his performance at the PAC Invite earlier this month and won by a hefty margin in the 1000 yard free with a final time of 9:49.74, more than ten seconds ahead of UC Santa Cruz's second place finisher. The likes of Giorgio Sportaro, Samuil Danailov, Olivier Petre, and Sawyer Jones added eleven big points at the end of the day with a first place finish in the 400 yard freestyle relay, recording a time of 3:01.39.
Junior transfer Eliza Taylor led the women's side with three event victories including the 100 yard breaststroke, 100 yard free and the 200 yard IM. Taylor alone accounted for 27 points with her three wins as the Gaels tied the Banana Slugs at 130 points but fell simply on the dive portion of the dual. Samantha Cummins also won a pair of events for Saint Mary's, claiming the 200 yard butterfly and 200 yard breaststroke. The Gaels also dominated the 1000 yard free with the top two finishers. Madison Poloni won the event with a time of 10:58.73 while Samira Semaan finished in second at 11:05.43.
I'm incredibly proud of how we raced today at Santa Cruz", said Gaels head coach Ellie Monobe. "We got off to a slow start, but we pulled through with grit and tenacity in a very close finish. We're in a tough stretch of training right now, so seeing this team execute under that kind of pressure is really reassuring. For our men, this was a historic meet. They earned the first win in our program's history. Our women competed with half the roster Santa Cruz had and still tied the meet without diving, which was incredible
Full meet results can be found HERE
LOOKING AHEAD
Saint Mary's will head back to the East Bay and take on Cal in its second dual meet of the weekend on Saturday. Additional meet information and results 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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Friday, October 23
Thursday, October 22
Thursday, October 22
Wednesday, October 21
