LA VERNE, Ca. - The UC Santa Cruz men's swim & dive team delivered one of the most complete championship performances in program history this weekend, winning their first-ever La Verne Invite title with a dominant 1,679 points. The Banana Slugs were propelled by exceptional depth across all strokes and distances, along with weekend-defining efforts from top scorers Kyle Reitan, Greyson Davies, and Massimo Reyna.
 
Reitan put together a standout meet through elite relay legs and stellar sprint performances to help anchor UCSC's scoring engine, dropping two NCAA B Cut times in the 50 and 100 free, while Davies excelled across multiple disciplines with big swims in the backstroke and IM events. Reyna added major points in the mid-distance and distance freestyle races, highlighted by scoring in both the 500 Free and 1650 Free finals. Together, the trio led a deep team effort that saw UCSC qualify swimmers into nearly every A, B, and C Final across the two-day meet, powering the Slugs to a wire-to-wire team victory. The Banana Slugs also highlighted the meet with NCAA B Cut performances in the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay.
 
In The Results
200 Free Relay: UCSC opened the meet with a strong sprint showing as the A relay of Kyle Reitan, Charlie Hussain, Bryson Schmid and JJ Stoen placed second in 1:22.09, while the B relay added valuable points in seventh at 1:24.15.
500 Free: Massimo Reyna paced the distance squad with a seventh-place finish in the A Final at 4:42.01 with Owen Blanford (13th, 4:44.29), Dylan Blietz (14th, 4:45.08) and Lucas Blietz (16th, 4:52.71) all scoring out of the B and C finals.
200 IM: Asher Kates led the Slugs in the 200 IM with an eighth-place A-Final finish in 1:55.40, while Jude Robinson (10th, 1:53.52) and Greyson Davies (14th, 1:55.14) scored out of the B Final and Sebastian Santiago (17th, 1:53.49) added C-Final points.
50 Free: In a deep sprint group, Kyle Reitan sprinted to second place in 20.38, earning an NCAA B Cut in the preliminary round with a time of 20.31 with JJ Stoen taking 10th in 20.70 and additional scoring coming from Charlie Hussain, Morgan Madril, Andrew Koika and Bryson Schmid across the B and C finals.
400 Medley Relay: The 400 medley relay of Greyson Davies, PJ Fortune, Morgan Madril and Kyle Reitan dominated the A Final, winning in 3:17.80, while UCSC's B relay of Asher Kates, Sebastian Santiago, Jude Robinson and Massimo Reyna placed sixth overall in 3:26.90.
200 Medley Relay: The 200 medley relay of Davies, Fortune, Madril and Reitan made it a sweep of the medleys, claiming first place with an NCAA B Cut time of 1:29.18, with UCSC's B relay (Sebastian Santiago, Jack West, Robinson and Hussain) finishing seventh in 1:32.14.
400 IM: Asher Kates again led the way in the IM events, taking sixth in the A Final in 4:07.97, while Greyson Davies chipped in points from the B Final with a 12th place swim in 4:12.84. Sebastian Santiago charged to 17th overall out of the C Final in 4:08.64.
100 Fly: Morgan Madril flew to the event title in the 100 butterfly, winning in 48.66 with Reitan adding a third-place finish in 49.49 and Stoen taking fifth in 49.72 as UCSC packed the A Final with scorers.
200 Free: Massimo Reyna was UCSC's top finisher in the 200 free with a seventh-place A-Final swim of 1:48.46 while Owen Blanford clocked a swift 1:41.81 to take 10th overall out of the B Final, joined in the scoring column by Lucas Blietz, Kent Nishida and Dylan Blietz.
100 Breast: First-year PJ Fortune headlined the breaststroke group with a fourth-place finish in 55.98, backed by Sebastian Santiago (11th, 57.27) and Karsten Hsiao (12th, 57.29) in the B Final and Jack West (14th, 57.37) also scoring.
100 Back: Asher Kates picked up more A-Final points with a sixth-place finish in the 100 back at 52.02 while Tennyson Smith added depth scoring with a 24th-place C-Final swim of 54.82.
800 Free Relay: In the 800 free relay, the A team of Reyna, Blanford, Lucas Blietz and Madril finished sixth in 6:54.00, keeping UCSC firmly in the mix in the mid-distance relay.
1650 Free: Dylan Blietz took 12th place overall with a time of 16:44.10 while Ido Haiby finished with a 15th place effort in 17:13.67 with Henry Kiesby following in 19th with a time of 17:58.94.
100 IM: Jack West paced the Slugs in the 100 IM with a seventh-place finish in 54.52 with Elbridge Shi (11th, 55.12), Israel Gonzalez (12th, 55.67) and Calvin Tam (14th, 57.58) all contributing points.
200 Back: UCSC showed well in the 200 back as Asher Kates placed third in 1:51.58 and Greyson Davies took fourth in 1:51.69 with Kaleb Wolfinger adding an 11th-place B-Final finish in 1:55.06 and Tennyson Smith scoring 21st in the C Final at 2:01.92.
100 Free: Kyle Reitan capped his sprint weekend by winning the 100 free title with an NCAA B Cut time of 44.15 while JJ Stoen took fifth in 45.57 and a deep UCSC group, including Reyna, Lucas Blietz, Madril, Hussain, Schmid, Koika and Adam Sinclair blanketed the B and C finals.
200 Breast: Sebastian Santiago led the breaststroke crew with a fourth-place A-Final finish in 2:03.21, followed closely by Fortune in sixth at 2:04.89, while Hsiao (11th, 2:07.27), West (17th, 2:11.06) and others kept UCSC piling up points through the B and C finals.
200 Fly: Greyson Davies claimed the 200 fly championship in 1:50.94 with Jude Robinson grabbing third in 1:51.87 and Kent Nishida adding a fifth-place finish in 1:52.44 plus additional scoring from Israel Gonzalez in the C Final who took 13th in 1:57.85.
400 Free Relay: The Slugs closed the swimming portion with a statement as the 400 free relay of Reitan, Morgan Madril, JJ Stoen and Reyna won the A Final with an NCAA B Cut time of 2:59.60, while UCSC's B relay finished seventh in 3:07.67.
1-Meter Dive: In the 1m dive, Eoin Hempenstall led the men's diving group with a ninth-place score of 173.90, and Trevor Masters added a 13th-place finish with 158.55 as UCSC's divers chipped in key points.
3-Meter Dive: In 3m diving, Charlie Shortt secured the A-Final win with 148.10, with Masters taking third at 130.80, and Hempenstall adding a 17th-place finish out of the B Final to wrap up UCSC's scoring on the boards.