SANTA CRUZ, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz men's swim and dive team was victorious in their season opener, winning the 2025 Slug Shootout at home after earning 1184 team points across the two day competition. UCSC saw strong performances from Sebastian Santiago and Kyle Reitan as the duo combined for 162 points with Santiago recording 82 individually. UC Santa Cruz will return to the pool on Oct. 25 when they travel to the University of the Pacific.
 
In the Results
UC Santa Cruz opened day two of the Slug Shootout with a win in the 200 medley relay, turning in a 1:33.43, winning the event by nearly two seconds. Dylan Blietz took second place in the 500 free, touching the wall in 4:49.12. In the 200 fly, Kent Nishida was the top finisher for UCSC, taking second with a time of 1:57.00 while Jude Robinson and Grayson Davies took fourth and fifth in 1:58.28 and 1:58.99. In the 50 back, Kaleb Wolfinger was the top UCSC finisher, swimming a 25.83s to take fifth with Asher Kates (26.17s) and Tennyson Smith (26.26s) taking sixth and seventh. The Banana Slugs went 1-2 in the 50 breast as PJ Fortune won with a time of 26.79 while Jack West swam a 26.88 for second place. In the 100 free, UCSC took first, third, and fourth with Kyle Reitan recording the field's only sub 47 second time, touching the wall in 46.31s while Massimo Reyna and Andrew Koika swam 47.65s and 48.59s. Jack West turned in the top time in the 200 IM, swimming a 2:03.45 while Elbridge Shi and Calvin Tam took third and fourth with a 2:07.74 and 2:12.46. In the 50 fly, Kyle Reitan, Andrew Koika, and Jude Robinson took first, third, and fourth with times of 22.96s, 23.45s, and 23.51s. Grayson Davies earned a victory in the 200 back after touching the wall in 1:56.32. The Banana Slugs went 1-2 in the 200 breast with Sebastian Santiago touching the wall in 2:06.60 while PJ Fortune finished the race in 2:09.46. In the 400 free relay, the UCSC A team took first with a time of 3:09.32 with the B team finishing in third in 3:13.01. In the 1650, Dylan Blietz and Ido Haiby took third and fifth with times of 16:48.33 and 17:50.10.
 
In the 3m dive competition, Charlie Shortt took second with 182.40 points while Ben Thiem and Trevor Masters took third and fourth with 181.15 points and 140.95 points, respectively.