The swim team competed in their first Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive meet of the season on Oct. 10-11. The Eagles started off the season well with solid performances in the relays and strong finishes in the individual events.
Team relays took place on the first day of the meet.
Biola kicked off the meet with a fifth place finish in the women’s 300 butterfly relay. The women finished fourth in the 300 breaststroke and third in the 800 freestyle. In addition, they took fourth in the 400 medley relay and third in the 400 freestyle relay.
The women’s team ranked sixth overall in the relays, and the men’s team ranked second.
REPRESENTING BIOLA
The pentathlons took place the following day. Junior Abby Blake ranked ninth overall in the women's 200 freestyle event with a time of 2:02.53. Freshman Victoria Dunbar finished right behind her in tenth place. Blake also took seventh in the women’s 500 freestyle and seventh overall in the women’s freestyle pentathlon.
“We want to represent Biola well. In the small things, just being authentic and enthusiastic,” said junior Elle Reed, “watching the rest of our team swim, encouraging them when they have bad swims and congratulating them and being excited for them when they have good swims.”
Junior Christine Tixier took a top finish in the women’s 100 butterfly, placing first overall with a time of 56.29. Tixier also took second in the women’s IM pentathlon with an overall time of 6:14.74. Her sister, freshman Lisa Tixier, followed closely behind her taking fourth place with a with a total time of 6:19.36. Both women also excelled in the 100 yard breaststroke, placing third and fourth, respectively. They also placed second and third in the 200 IM.
One of the relay groups from Biola’s men’s team placed second in the men’s 300 backstroke relay, and another group placed third in the 300 butterfly relay. The men also took third in the 400 freestyle relay and third in the 300 breaststroke relay.
“We have better fitness than last year,” said senior Bretton Smith. “It took us all season last year to get into the spot that we’re at right now. As a team collectively, we’re way ahead than we were in past years,”
STRENGTH TRAINING
Senior Bretton Smith and sophomores James Daughters and Michael Severi all had strong finishes in the men’s 25 freestyle. Junior Eddie Campana did well in the men’s 100 backstroke and freestyle, finishing second with a time of 54.17 and fifth with a 48.40. Junior Kenny Alcosiba placed seventh in the men’s 100 backstroke and ranked seventh overall in the IM pentathlon with a total time of 5:55.84.
“We’ve been working on some stroke stuff in the water, fixing my body and getting a better position in the water,” said Smith. “We’ve been doing a lot of yards, a lot of sprint work and cardio, so that’s really going to help us get a lot faster later on.”
In addition to pool workouts, the team completes other training to strengthen their fitness.
“We do weights and we have a personal trainer who comes at the beginning of the season,” said sophomore Jennifer Walker. “We work with him, and he gives specific workouts for swimmers. Each swimmer has an individual workout time during practice, that’s new this year.”
Team members shared goals that they would like to accomplish over the season.
“I’d like to go to nationals again, and just to have a good season with the team total, everyone being encouraging and have team unity, like a family,” said Walker.
The next swim meet is the Bay Area Invitational on Oct. 18 at Mills College in Oakland, CA.
