Semana Nautica Roundup

Tennis, Volleyball and Ocean Swims Highlight the First Week of Semana Nautica

Lev Parnas blocks Hagen Smith in the men's final. | Credit: Victor Bryant

After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, Santa Barbara’s summer sports festival, Semana Nautica, has returned.

The series of sports and recreational events runs from 6/23-7/10 and offers a unique experience for participants and spectators alike.

“We went dark, so like everybody else experienced, it was quite the setback,” said Semana Nautica Board President Dana Longo. “Then getting it started back up took a little bit of initiative. It seemed like we weren’t on autopilot as much as we were in the past, so we had to really pay extra attention to details here.”

Semana Nautica began in 1933 when locals challenged Navy Seamen, who were anchored offshore to a series of sporting events.

One of the more exciting additions to Semana Nautica this year is the increase in ocean swimming events, including the swim-run-swim-run-swim-run-swim-run-swim that was developed this year and took place on Sunday, June 26th.

“We added a couple of ocean swimming events that are being coordinated by Tony Sholl, who is the aquatics director of the City Parks & Recreation department,” Longo said. “They are going quite well.”

In the Mullen and Henzel two-mile ocean swim 17-year old John Bish of Dos Pueblos High took first place on Saturday with a time of 40:19. The first female finisher in the two-mile ocean swim was Mallory Mead with a time of 43:23.

There was also a five-mile Biathlon, which was won by Ryan Wenger with a time of 46:34. Chrissy Faulding was the lone female participant and she finished with a time of 50:31.

The three-mile ocean swim took place on Sunday and Jonathan Dolan was the first to finish with a time of 59:17. Andrea Bish was the first female finisher at 1:08.14.

Beach Volleyball Open

There was also fierce competition on the sand for the CBVA Men’s Beach Volleyball open and the CBVA Women’s Beach Volleyball open. Each tournament awarded $2,000 to the first place finishers and a potential spot in the AVP Manhattan Beach open.

The women took center stage on Sunday, as Kahlee York and Kylie Deberg defeated Lindsey Knudsen and Delaney (Knudsen) Mewhirter, 28-21, in the one-game final.

Former Dos Pueblos High and Stanford Volleyball star Carly Wopat took third place with her partner Chanti Holryod.

On the men’s side Lev Prima and Jake Landel defeated Hagen Smith and Jake Dietrich 28-23 in the final.

“Lev and I have been playing together for ages so that connection between us is what drove us all the way to the title,” Landel said. “Having fun and playing with a crowd, there’s nothing else like it.”

Local legends Ric Cervantes and his teammate former UCSB All-American setter Jonah Seif took third place after a tough, 28-25 loss to Dietrich and Smith in the semifinal.

Santa Barbara Tennis Open

Top-seeded UCSB women’s tennis teammates Camille Kiss and Marta Gonzalez Ballbe lived up to their billing and claimed the women’s doubles title defeating Stephanie Stone/Jill Gardner 6-1, 6-0 on Sunday in the final.

Camille Kiss and Marta Gonzalez Ballbe. | Credit: Courtesy

The goal of the tournament this year is to have large draws with competitive matches all the way through. Early in the tournament weaker players go against each other for competitive matches and stronger players feed into the draw later in the tournament so novice players don’t have to play the top seed in the first round. This is the first year that the Santa Barbara Open has utilized the seeded draw system.

“We’ve had a great turn out. I think the participation rate is probably higher than it has been in years. There were 64 players in the men’s draw, which is a big number.” said tournament coordinator Greg Tebbe. “I was really pleased that every division had a lot of entrants and were extremely high level.”

The remaining Semana Nautica event schedule is listed below: