A look back at the 74th Semana Nautica Festival

If they weren’t dripping wet with ocean or pool water, they were drenched in sweat from taking part in events at the 74th annual Semana Nautica summer sports festival.

Participants were either sailing on the water or swimming in it; running along the beach or on the Santa Barbara streets; serving, passing, spiking and digging volleyballs at East Beach; hitting and snaring softballs at Elings Park; blasting passing shots at the Municipal Tennis Center and Tennis Club of Santa Barbara, or burning thigh muscles cycling in a time trial on Cathedral Oaks.

Highlights of several events can been seen on video on SemanaNautica.com.

Here's the Festival Poster for 2011, the 74th year of Semana Nautica sporting events held in Santa Barbara.

Warmer water temperatures this summer helped bring out a record-number of entrants in the Mullen & Henzell 1-mile and 3-mile ocean swims.

Local Olympian Mark Warkentin won the mile swim for the third straight year. He pulled away from the record-field of 144 swimmers and was timed in 16 minutes, 49.53 seconds.

High school student Nicole Antoniuk of Canyon Aquatic Club in Santa Clarita also won for the third in a row. Her time was 17:03.23, and she beat Australian open-water swimmer Luane Rowe.

Rowe would have her day in the Mullen & Henzell 3-mile swim, winning in 1 hour, 3 minutes, 31 seconds. The overall winner was compatriot Max Halson in 57 minutes, 10 seconds. The local finisher was Ed Smith, who competed in all the Semana Nautica ocean swims, the 5-mile biathlon and the 15-kilometer run.

One of the surprises of the ocean events was in the 5-mile biathlon, where perennial champion Jon Clark came in second to Ireland’s Donncha O’Siadhail. A strong swimmer, the 33-year-old Irishman zipped past 4-mile run leader Scott Devore and won in 45:56. Clark, 50, was second in 47:48.

Women’s winner Renee Roy, a 25-year-old Pismo Beach lifeguard and former collegiate swimmer from Oxnard, also made up a deficit in the water.

The most grueling event of the festival is the 6-mile swim from the Goleta Beach Pier to Hendry’s Beach. Besides the distance, swimmers have to deal with the ocean current. Ed Smith took first place in 2:29.14. Dos Pueblos alum Valerie Eacret, a senior at Tufts University, was the first woman finisher in 2:38.42.

“It’s like swimming in quicksand,” Smith said of the strong current.

“Ed did a great job,” said 2010 winner Stewart Reid. “With all the races he’s done, that was a great effort on his part.”

On the sand, local Brant Lee teamed with Tate Wolthall of Santa Cruz of to win the CBVA Men’s Masters beach volleyball tournament.

In Open Division competition, Andy McGuire, the libero on UCSB’s national runner-up team, teamed with Joey Dykstra to win the men’s championship. The women’s title was won by Kathrin Winkler and Tarin Keith.

Beach soccer took over West Beach. AV Boas defeated defending champion Team Chi-Chi in a penalty-kick shootout for the Open Division title at the Santa Barbara Beach Soccer Summer Slam, presented by Community West Bank. The Co-ed crown was won by Community West Bank FC over Team Beach Rat.

The Santa Barbara Open tennis tournament was part of the festival, and a couple Spaniards claimed the top division singles titles. UCSB’s Natalia Lozana captured the women’s open crown, while Luis Antonio Perez took the men’s open championship.

One of wildest and craziest events of Semana Nautica is the Krazy Kardboard Kayak Race. Using pieces of cardboard and duct tape, participants madly construct a kayak and float it off West Beach.

Away from the shore, the Fourth of July 15k run is one of the longest-running road races in Southern California, with the first race being held in 1955. Forest Braden, the distance coach at UCLA, beat future Bruin and Dos Pueblos High star Sergey Sushchikh for first place. Braden’s winning time was 48:33, while Sushchikh was clocked in 49:29. Mandy Grantz, a grad student at Cal Tech in Pasadena, was the women’s champion in 55:37.

The festival wrapped up with the DMI Doug McFadden Memorial Time Trial, a 10-mile cycling race against the clock on Cathedral Oaks in Goleta. Mike Grundmann was the winner in 23 minutes, 16 seconds and Kathrine Warren was the first woman finisher in 27:51.

Semana Nautica would like to thank all the participants, spectators and supporters for making the 2011 festival a tremendous success. Hope to see you next summer.

O’Siadhail, Roy win in Semana Nautica biathlon debuts

Not even a wrong lef turn could keep Irishman Donncha O’Siadhail from winning the Semana Nautica 5-mile biathlon on Saturday.

O’Siadhail was so dominant in the 1-mile swim of the race that he had plenty of time to recover from a premature turn toward shore (about 150 yards before the finishing area) to win handily, beating perennial champion Jon Clark in the process.

O’Siadhail, 33, a high school teacher in Ireland and a triathlete, won in 45 minutes, 26 seconds. Clark, 50, finished second in 47:48.

The women’s winner was Renee Roy, a 25-year-old Pismo Beach lifeguard and former collegiate swimmer from Oxnard.

O’Siadhail entered the water in second place, 11 seconds behind leader Scott Devore, who was timed in 23:29 for the four-mile sand run along East Beach.

Relishing the mild water temperature and calm conditions, O’Siadhail turned on his propellers and sped past Devore.

He barely avoided disqualification when he turned toward the beach too soon. Spectators on the beach screamed at him to go back and he managed to hear them before coming to his feet.

He swam back into deeper water and exited at the proper finishing area.

O’Siadhail blamed the mistake on fogged goggles.

“When the goggles fog up, you can’t see anything, but I saw the van (a red lifeguard truck) and the yellow buoy and I thought that was (the finish),” he said. “Then I saw (his friend) Jennifer and somebody else yelling, ‘Get back, get back.’ I couldn’t see the building.”

Despite the early left turn, O’Siadhail was in no danger of losing the lead.

Ryan Wenger (48:23), Carl Parker (49:13) and Ed Smith (49:30) rounded out the top five. Devore was sixth in 49:48.

Roy was seventh overall. The former Oxnard High and Ventura College swimmer was competing in her first biathlon.

“I’ve never done any open-water swims except lifeguarding,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do it. For the last couple of years I’ve looked at his ocean festival and thought about doing the swims, but for some reason the last two summers I’ve gotten sick right at this time with a summer cold and haven’t been able to get out of bed. Finally, this year I got out of bed to try it.”

Roy said she was the fourth woman to hit the water and went after the leaders.

“I passed one, I passed the next one and then all of a sudden, ‘I got to find her, I’ve got to find her.’”

Now she’s hooked on the event.

“As I was swimming I was saying, ‘OK, I like this; I think I’ve found my calling. I’m going to try more of these,’ ” she said.

Becky Glusac (51:06), Chrissy Faulding (55:36), Leslie Roth (55:36) and Maureen MacDonald finished second through fifth.

Santa Barbara Tennis Open Results

Kallim Stewart, pictured, will face Luis Perez for the Men's Open title.

Click Here for latest results from the 75th Santa Barbara Tennis Open.

Mullen & Henzell 1-Mile Ocean Swim Recap

By Barry Punzal, PresidioSports.com

After a career of competing around the world, swimmer Mark Warkentin has become a homebody.

That doesn’t bode well for competitors who aim to win events like the Semana Nautica 1-mile ocean swim.

Warkentin, a U.S. Olympian in open-water swimming, cruised past the record-field of 144 swimmers on Saturday to win the race along East Beach in 16 minutes, 49.53 seconds.

Unlike the last two years, conditions were near perfect with water temperature around 63 degrees and a fairly smooth surface.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE RESULTS

“This is kind of my post-swimming career swimming career,” said Warkentin, who turned to open-water swimming after a long pool-swimming career and qualified for the 10-kilometer event at the 2008 Olympics in China. “I retired after the World Championship Trials, retired from professional open-water swimming, and now I’m just a local guy who likes to do local races.”

Saturday’s win was his third in a row in the mile. He beat twin brothers Mitchell and Matthew Johnson of the Canyons Aquatic Club of Santa Clarita, who staged a furious battle to the finish line. Their times were 16:57.73 and 16:57.74.

Women’s champion Nicole Antoniuk, also of the Canyons Aquatic Club, also won for the third straight year. Her time was 17:03.23, which was fifth best overall. Luane Rowe was second in 18:14.69 and Emma Osowski finished third in 18:21.35.

“I had a rough start but (the swim) was good,” said Antoniuk, a senior-to-be at Hart High School. “It felt better than years before.”

Antoniuk said she got kicked in the face at the start and didn’t find her rhythm until making the turn at the halfway buoy.

“Once I turned I got into the motion and started going. That’s when I caught up with (Canyon Aquatics teammate) Matt Howard.”

Howard came in just ahead of Antoniuk in 17:02.95, fourth overall.

Antoniuk specializes in the distance events for her high school team. She finished fourth in the 500 freestyle and seven in the 200 IM at the CIF Finals this season.

“Coming here is just like swim practice,” she said of doing the Semana Nautica mile. “It’s nonstop swimming.”

Warkentin, a San Marcos High alum, has been swimming nonstop for several years. Last year, he won both the 1- and 3-mile Semana Nautica events and did a 28.5-mile swim around New York’s Manhattan Island.

Last month, he did the 10k at the USA Open Water National Championships in Fort Lauderdale and finished in fourth place to miss qualifying for the World Championships by two places.

Now, he seems content with doing the local races. He said he decided the last minute to swim the mile.

“I always have the idea in my head; it’s Semana Nautica, you have to do it if you’re an athlete in Santa Barbara.”

As for doing Sunday’s 3-mile race, “We’ll see,” he said.

McGuire-Dykstra dominate, win Santa Barbara Open title

Will Montgomery, pictured, and Kevine Tillie finished in third.

By Barry Punzal, PresidioSports.com

Andy McGuire, the senior libero on UCSB’s national runner-up men’s volleyball team, returned to Santa Barbara and brought some Gaucho magic with him.

McGuire was a force digging the ball and his partner, Joey Dykstra, controlled the net to frustrate 6-9 Andrew Fuller and Everett Matthews and win the championship of the Santa Barbara Men’s Open, 28-18, on Sunday at East Beach.

The tournament was part of the Semana Nautica sports festival.

McGuire’s digging and passing were instrumental in UCSB’s success in the postseason. The Gauchos won the MPSF Tournament and reached the NCAA final, where they fell in five sets to Ohio State.

McGuire has that same defensive prowess and ball control on the sand, and his chemistry with Dykstra, a long-time friend, was too much for the top-seeded team to overcome. McGuire-Dykstra were the fourth seed.

“…Evie is a real good competitor and I’m really happy we were able to pull out this one against him in the final,” said McGuire.

Will Montgomery, a former Santa Barbara High star and the libero for UC Irvine, finished third with future UC Irvine teammate Kevine Tillie of France. Former Gaucho Ben Brockman and former East Beach regular Avery Drost also finished third.

Former Dos Pueblos standout Jordan Dyer and Ian Satterfield, and Lucas Black and Mike Nelson tied for fifth.

The tournament drew 25 teams.