The Black Tide swept their way through the ultimate frisbee competition in Santa Cruz, crushing their first three opponents by a combined score of 45-6, then downing British Columbia 15-8 and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 15-12 to advance to the finals, where they defeated Stanford 15-9 to win the tournament and a ticket to the nationals in Minnesota the first weekend of June. Their female counterparts the Burning Skirts fell just short in their regionals, making it to the finals before falling to Stanford, and then losing to Berkeley in the second place game to be squeezed out of the second national tournament spot.
The most heartbreaking Gaucho regional mishap had to be the cycling team's. At the end of day one of the West Coast Collegiate Championships, UCSB was in fourth place, on par to qualify for the nationals. Then on Sunday disaster struck as all but two of the Gaucho men's cyclists crashed in the qualifying heat. The team dropped into six place and fell a mere 4 points short of the 1160 needed to make the nationals.
If the cyclists' tale is heartbreaking, the UCSB surfing team's story is simply bizzarre. In San Diego at the Collegiate State Championships, the Gauchos kept finding themselves seeded against one another, and by the time the competition had concluded the UCSB surfers had taken enough points from each other that they were just behind their rivals from UC San Diego. Nonetheless, both schools qualify for the nationals in June.
The third UCSB Sport Club season to end last weekend was that of the Sailing team, who placed sixth in the Pacific Coast championsips, well below the second-place finish to make the nationals. They look to do better next year, with seven new recruits on the way.
Finally, the Gaucho triathletes competed in their national tourney last weekend at the Wildflower Triathlon. Despite Annie Diulio's first-place finish, the team couldn't manage the top two spot they'd been hoping for, coming in third behind Colorado and Cal Poly SLO, as none of the UCSB men cracked the top 10.
Only one upcoming Club Sports event as we wait for the nationals to roll around: the UCSB rowing team looks to send nine boats to the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships in Sacramento.
And that's the club sports roundup for the week ending May 8, 1996