The Biola swimming and diving team kicked off their season on Oct. 9 at the Splash Aquatic Center in La Mirada, Calif. Although the women finished fifth of six teams and the men finished fourth of five teams, the team feels optimistic about their results to start the season and the women qualified seven to compete at the NAIA Nationals meet.

THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE

“Last year this meet was kind of rough, and this year everyone swam a lot faster than most of us expected,” said sophomore Daniel Vale. “Usually the first meet, we have to shake off the cobwebs and we’re usually just so tired. We were tired, but we had a really good attitude going into it and I think that was the biggest difference.”

Relay teams competed in the first day of the meet, followed by the pentathlon Oct. 10. In the second relay event of the day, the men’s 3×100 yard butterfly relay composed of Vale, senior Kenny Alcosiba and freshman Christian Berney took second behind Fresno Pacific University.  

The men took first in two of the meet’s relay events. Alcosiba, Vale and juniors Chad LeJeune and Michael Severi won the men’s 400 yard medley relay, beating Concordia University by four seconds. LeJeune, freshman Ryan Harper and senior Darrin Smith also finished first in men’s 3×100 yard breaststroke relay.

The women took third in three relay events and secured second in the women’s 400 yard medley relay. This relay team was composed of sophomore Sophia Dammann, junior Christiana Ali, sophomore Lisa Tixier and senior Angela Kirschner. This meet marked Ali’s first competition for Biola as she competes for the team in her semester of studying abroad in Indonesia.

A SUPPORTIVE TEAM

“I never really had a big team supporting each other like that in my country, it’s real individual,” Ali said. “It was really good having the team [provide] support for you. I can see them at the end of the pool and they’re screaming all the time. It’s awesome.”

The first event of the pentathlon was the women’s 200 yard freestyle. Out of 40 total swimmers, senior Abby Blake finished fifth overall with a final time of 1:58.62. In the men’s 200 yard freestyle, Severi finished seventh with a time of 1:47.99.  

Biola had five top-three finishes the day of the pentathlon, highlighted by a second place finish from Tixier in the women’s 100 yard freestyle.

Seven women made the cut for the NAIA National Tournament through their times in this meet. Those five include Kirschner, Blake, Ali, Tixier, sophomore Victoria Dunbar and freshmen Jenny London and Rebecca Brandt.

TIME TO IMPROVE

The team has nine more meets to improve upon their times before the Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference Championships on Feb. 12. Their next meet is the Bay Area Invitational in Oakland, Calif. on Oct. 23.

“I think people see more potential than they saw in themselves before,” Vale said. “By the end of the year last year everyone was swimming really fast but that’s when you’re rested and you’re in really good shape, and so to swim as fast as we swam being tired and being really early in the season we’re all extending our goals because we see the potential.”