Eagles come out with solid times in dual-meet

Despite a rough loss against rival Azusa Pacific University, the Biola swim team pulled out some of their best times of the season at their first meet at home on Saturday morning.

Since Azusa does not have a men’s team, only women participated in the first meet Biola has ever hosted during a semester, as they’ve only previously hosted over interterm.

Senior Amber Kiel and freshman Christine Tixier led the way for Biola, each winning a pair of events, showing off the hard work that the team has been putting in. Though Biola ultimately lost the meet, 142-96, the score this year was closer than any previous season and truly displayed the effort put in by the team.

“I felt better about this meet than our past meets this season,” senior Rachael Sirjord said. “We’ve been working hard in the pool and the weight room so it’s nice to see some results.”

Kiel and Tixier shine in individual events

Kiel and Tixier mastered their individual events, both earning 18 points for their team. Kiel led the way in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:04.94 and the 100-yard backstroke with a 1:02.68 recorded time. Tixier beat out her opponents in the 400-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke, touching the wall many seconds ahead of the rest. Sophomore Monica Hurt and Sirjord followed in the points, earning 14 more between the two of them in their individual events.

Kiel, Tixier, Sirjord and Hurt closed out the meet, winning the 400-yard freestyle relay nearly six seconds ahead of their opponents.

Diving’s Lewis qualifies for nationals

On the diving side, junior Austyn Lewis qualified for nationals in the 3-meter board dive with a score of 243.5.

Though Biola could not come out with the win, the team is very happy with the progress they have made and look forward to stepping it up for the next meet.

“While the loss of the meet against APU is unfortunate, it gave us a great opportunity to swim hard and fix technical errors in practice in preparation for competition in Redlands,” sophomore Bretton Smith said.

Biola will return to the swimming pool on Saturday, Nov. 12 for the University of Redlands Bulldog Invitational.