The UC Santa Barbara men's and women's swim teams gear-up for the Big West Conference Championship meet held Wednesday February 26 through Friday February 28 in Long Beach. The UCSB men's team looks to avenge last year's loss to Pacific for the Big West Conference title. The Gaucho women's swim team is also setting their sites on the defending Big West Champions, Pacific.

Santa Barbara men's swimming team is lead by two-time Big West Conference swimmer of the Year Matt Wheeler. Wheeler leads a young talented team with the help of senior co-captain Marc Cavallero. Cavallero has already recorded a lifetime best in the 200 breaststroke this season leading the Gauchos in that distance. The midseason return of Shaun Crossman has recharged Santa Barbara's butterfly and individual medley contingency.

On the women's side, UCSB is lead by a duo of NCAA qualifiers with Julia King and Lindsay Dalonzo. Dalonzo has already broken two school records this season in the100 backstroke (55.20) and the 200 backstroke (1:59.00). King is leading the team with top times in 50 (23.46) and 100 (51.55) freestyle and is considered the cornerstone of the Gaucho's freestyle relays.

Distance Freestyle

Eric Koch looks again to be the Big West Conference favorite in the1000 and1650 freestyle recording conference bests of (9:23.79) and (15:37.08) respectively. With the late season emergence of junior Matt Schubert and freshman Garrett Porteous, the Gauchos have the possibility of sweeping the 1000 and 1650 freestyle events.

The Santa Barbara women's team will look to the depth of the distance program to provide a lift in scoring. Junior Stephanie Netzley whose top performance in the 500 freestyle (4:57.94) combined with senior Romina Mosquera's (4:58.72) provides great depth at the middle distance. The 1000 and the 1650 freestyles are, as of late, controlled by twin sisters Abby and Emily Murad, who with the help of junior Colleen Barnett round out a serious scoring threat.

Backstroke

Freshmen Pat Ota, TK Erwin and Ben Fisher look to be challenge for the conference titles in both the 100 and 200 backstroke. Ota has recorded the fastest time in the100 backstroke (50.54) and Erwin has recorded the fastest time in the 200 backstroke (1:50.86) for Santa Barbara this season.

Dalonzo, King, and Netzley create great depth in the backstroke events and with the addition of freshman Danielle Taylor in the 100 and 200 backstroke, the Gauchos are looking to place four women in the top eight of the 100 backstroke.

Butterfly

Shaun Crossman leads the team in the 200 butterfly with a season best of 1:51.10 and Ota in the 100 butterfly with a team best of 50.62. The Gauchos will also look to the help of Karim Varela, David Robinson (The Admiral), Eric Orlando and Erik Hansen.

Senior Kristel Haesler and the multitalented Netzley look to be the Gauchos greatest assets in the butterfly events. The Gauchos will also receive help from sophomore Jen Moeckel

Breaststroke

A trio of talent, headed by Cavallero, Derek Ogata, and Scott Bear, leads the breaststroke events. Santa Barbara will also receive depth from freshman Todd Husty. Ogata posts the Gauchos best time in the 100 breaststroke (57.25), while Cavallero posts the top time in the 200 breaststroke (2:02.81).

The women's trio consists of Wong, freshman Jennifer Cook and senior Tammy Pratummas. Cook holds the teams fastest time this season in the100 breaststroke (1:05.76) while Wong holds the fastest time in the 200 (2:21.55)

Sprint Freestyle

Ryan Dingler and Anders Nelson lead the freestyle events. Dingler and Nelson are tied with the top time in the 50 freestyle (20.87) while Nelson alone has the top time in the 100 freestyle (45.54) this season. The Gauchos will also look to Ogata, Bear and Robinson to round out the sprint relays. In the 200 events the Gauchos will look to Nelson again who hold the seasons best in a time of 1:40.51.

King and Mosquera are given help in the sprint events by sophomore Becky Glusac and freshman Lauren Moskovitz. The Gauchos relays will look for contributions from freshmen Megan Barnett, Allison Eller and Dalonzo in the relay events.

Individual Medley

The individual medley events will rely on the one-two punch of Wheeler and Crossman. At the 2002 Big West Conference Championships they finished first and second in the 400 IM.

On the women's side, the Gauchos are lead by Haesler who holds the team's top times in both the 200 (2:04.79) and 400 IM (4:23.55). The Gauchos will also receive much needed help from Wong, Taylor, and Pratummas in the IM events.

At the 2002 Big West Championships, Pacific ended the Gauchos NCAA record run for the most consecutive conference titles victories with 23. The Gauchos are currently tied with the defending NCAA Champions the University of Texas for the most consecutive conference titles with 23, followed closely by Stanford with 22.

Big West Championships are being held at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach. Prelims will begin everyday at 11 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m.