Santa Barbara takes first at cross country invitational

Santa Barbara’s Drew DeLozier, Xan Tassos and Andreas Dybdahl race Friday at the Racer Invitational in Oxnard, where the Dons took first among the 14 teams.
The Santa Barbara boys cross country team placed first Friday among the 14 teams at the Raider Invitational at College Park in Oxnard.
Santa Barbara had a score of 36. Cross-town rivals San Marcos placed second with a score of 76, followed by Foothill Tech in third with 80 points. (In cross country, the lowest score wins.)
“The guys keep pushing each other and grouping up near the front of races,” Coach Olivia Perdices told the News-Press in an email. “It’s incredibly satisfying to watch them elevate each other. Our scorers were sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 11th and … only separated by 23 seconds!”
“Blaise Snow led the way in 15:55, followed by Oliver Levine in 16:04, Andreas Dybdahl in 16:05, Xan Tassos in 16:06 and Drew DeLozier in 16:18. Race winner Camilo Torres of Fillmore ran 15:26,” Perdices said.
The Santa Barbara girls cross country team finished 11th with 231 points. Ridley DeSoto was the top finisher for the Dons in 18th at 20:51.
“Ridley keeps steadily improving,” Perdices said. “She’s just a sophomore who didn’t get a chance to run in anything but duals last season.
“We had some key girls out today with some little illnesses and injuries that we wanted to be cautious with and get right before league next week,” Perdices said Friday.
The cross country team’s next match is Channel League Mid Season Mert Wednesday at River Park in Lompoc.
LARGE CROWD SEES GAUCHO VICTORY
A crowd of 8,000 fans cheered Saturday night as the UCSB men’s soccer team defeated Cal Poly at the Gauchos’ Harder Stadium.
The 2-0 victory over the Mustangs came after a couple of goals by UCSB sophomore attacker Finn Ballard McBride.
“I’m excited to have won tonight,” UCSB Head Coach Tim Von Steeg said Saturday in a news release. “It felt like we hadn’t done this in a long time to be honest — lots of people, Cal Poly, it was lots of excitement.”
UCSB WINS TWICE IN VOLLEYBALL
UCSB defeated UC San Diego 3-1 during the Big West opener Friday in volleyball at the Gauchos’ Thunderdome.
UC San Diego took the first set 25-20, but UCSB won the next three — 25-14, 25-19 and 25-18.
The Gauchos’ Abrielle Bross led the way with 14 kills and a .406 hitting percentage. Deni Wilson and Tasia Farmer had 10 kills each.
Wilson also had six blocks and a .476 hitting percentage.
Macall Peed led all the players with 22 digs and had a clean slate on the reception end, according to a news release.
On Saturday, the Gauchos won again, this time against UC Irvine at the Thunderdome.
The Gauchos had a whopping 50 kills and took all three sets — 25-20, 25-17 and 25-16.
Tallulah Froley had 14 of those kills, with a .478 attack percentage. Bross had 13 kills.
Mehana Ma’a led the Gauchos in assists with 22.
UCSB heads to Cal Poly on Friday, followed by a road trip to Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday.
DOS PUEBLOS
The Dos Pueblos football team beat cross-town rivals San Marcos 17-7 Saturday in an away game.
The Royals’ touchdowns were made by senior wide receiver Osiris Fox, who had a 50-yard pass play, and junior middle linebacker David Buso.
With nine seconds left in the second quarter, junior kicker Greg Tripathi scored a 38-yard field goal.
Besides his rushing touchdown, Buso made 10 tackles.
In an email to the News-Press, Coach A.J. Pateras praised the Royals’ defense, which kept San Marcos scoreless for the last three quarters.
The Royals are now 2-3 for the season.
DOS PUEBLOS SINKS LA SERNA
The Dos Pueblos boys water polo team defeated La Serna 6-4 Saturday in a home match.
The Chargers led 4-3 at the half and improved its lead to 5-3 in the third quarter.
Brody Luke had 4 goals and 2 field blocks.
Aiden Trager had 9 saves in goal.
“We got off to a slow start in the first quarter,” Coach Bryan Snyder told the News-Press in an email. “We had a couple defensive breakdowns that led to three goals for them (La Serna). After that, we really clamped down defensively and shut them out for the next two quarters.
“Overall our defense was great, and we really did a great job of translating what we worked on in practice into the game and it showed today,” Snyder said. “I’m really proud of the boys for this effort.”
ANACAPA’ S VICTORY IN OJAI
A trip to Ojai Saturday — along with inspired teamwork — paid off for Anacapa School, which defeated Oak Grove there in five suspenseful sets of volleyball.
The ultimate winner wouldn’t be known until the fifth set.
Anacapa took the first set 25-12, but lost the second set and third sets 25-27 and 20-25.
In the fourth set, Anacapa senior Julia Minor and sophomore Allegra Cullen, who led Anacapa with 6 aces, worked long serve streaks that led to a 25-14 victory for their school.
Now it was time for the decisive fifth set, which went back and forth between the two teams. But an unfazed senior, Anacapa’s Clarissa Sanchez, “rallied off six impressive serves to lead the Islands Foxes to victory 16-14 in the fifth set,” Coach Jacob Pepper told the News-Press in an email. “Freshman Blake Hurst played solid all over the court for Anacapa, leading Anacapa with 2 kills and 4 aces,”
On Saturday, Anacapa will be on the road again to take on Midland School in Los Olivos.
email: dmason@newspress.com