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Team Santa Monica’s Annalena Siering has announced her decision to remain in-state to swim for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos beginning in the 2022-2023 season. She is a junior at Santa Monica High School and her older sister is graduating from UCSB in the summer of 2021. When Siering is not at school or training with TSM, she enjoys surfing on her longboard at Tower 26 in Santa Monica. When she arrives in Santa Barbara, she plans to earn a degree in Economics with the intention of pursuing a career in Business.
I am very thankful to Coach Mohammad and Coach Iman at TSM. They helped me prepare tremendously for this new adventure. I am also very excited to be working with Coach Matt and his team to try to win as many championships as possible with UCSB. Go, Gauchos!
In April of 2019, the Santa Monica High School freshman competed at the California CIF Southern Section DIII Championships. She swam the 200 and 500 free, making it back in the B-final of each event. She touched 12th in finals for the 200 free, taking 1.05 seconds off of her prelims time. She later finished 13th in the 500 free, racing to the wall in a time of 5:12.97. Siering swam the third leg of Santa Monica’s 400 free relay.
Siering attended the CA-NV 2021 Sectionals in St. George, UT in March. She swam the 200, 500, and 1000 free, the 100 fly, and the 400 IM, finishing in the top 8 in three of the five events. She swam in the C-final of the 200 free, moving up two spots to finish 21st. She also moved up in the rankings in the 500 free and 400 IM, going to 8th to 7th in the free and 7th to 6th in the IM. Finally, Siering earned a bronze medal in the 1000 free. Although not her best, her time of 10:19.28 qualified her for the 2021 Open Water Junior Nationals.
Top SCY Times:
- 500 free – 5:00.23
- 1000 free – 10:16.67
- 1650 free – 17:08.67
Siering will join the Gauchos beginning in the fall of 2022. She will make an immediate impact on the team, with the possibility of scoring points at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships. At the 2020 conference meet, Siering would have placed within the top-8 in the 1650 and would have earned a spot in the B-final of the 500 free and 400 IM.
UC Santa Barbara had a strong recruiting year with the class of 2026. The Gauchos have already picked up verbals from Samantha Banos, Olivia Hovorka, Nina Statler, Isabella Urlando, Hazel Derr, and Alyssa Lund.
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Way to go Lena!!