The Biola men’s and women’s swim teams competed in a double-dual meet on Oct. 23 and the Bay Area Invitational on Oct. 24 at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. The women won both of their dual meets against the College of Idaho and Mills College, but the men’s team faced a loss in their dual meet against C of I.
ANTICIPATING THE MEET
Team members looked forward to competing this weekend and traveling away from Southern California. Freshman Meagan Smith anticipated swimming in different events at this meet.
“I’m looking forward to swimming more than just freestyle. I swam a lot of freestyle at the last meet, at this one I’m doing more of the IM and backstroke,” Smith said.
Severi looked forward to the meet because it took place in the Bay Area.
“Since it’s the Bay Area, a lot of people’s families will be there, including mine, so I think people are pretty stoked for that — they’re going to see a lot of family and friends,” Severi said.
Severi hopes he and his teammates will set new personal records this season.
“I want to get PR’s [personal records] in all my events and see other people get PR’s in all their events,” Severi said.
His personal goal is to record a time a 1:43 in the 200 freestyle, two seconds faster than his time of 1:45 at nationals last year.
CONTINUING TO EXCEL
At the Oct. 23 meet, the women excelled in the 200-yard medley relay, coming in first place. The group of women included sophomore Sophia Dammann, junior Christina Ali, sophomore Lisa Tixier and senior Angela Kirschner.
Ali did well in other events at the meet and took first place in the women’s 100-yard backstroke. Freshman Rebecca Brandt also stood out and secured second place in the women’s 100-yard butterfly.
The women continued this level of success in the freestyle events. Tixier finished first in the Women’s 100-yard freestyle. Senior Abby Blake shined in the distance freestyle events at this meet, coming in first place in the women’s 500-yard freestyle. Blake also finished first in the 1,000-yard freestyle by an entire 59 seconds above the second place time recorded by the College of Idaho.
A TOUGH OPPONENT
C of I’s speedy swimmers proved a tough opponent for the men’s team, who faced a loss at the meet on Oct. 23. However, the men performed well in a few individual events and finished strong in the distance events with freshman Noah Reed’s first place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle. In addition, junior Michael Severi almost secured first place in the men’s 100-yard freestyle, but C of I senior Nolan Hill finished a mere .04 seconds before him.
The team faced more competition in the Bay Area Invitational at Mills College on Oct. 24, making it harder to place in the top three in each event.
The women took third place overall in this meet, finishing behind Cal State East Bay in first place and C of I in second place.
In the individual events, Blake finished second in the Women’s 400-yard IM, Ali finished first in the women’s-yard 200 breaststroke and women’s 100-yard backstroke, and Tixier took second place in the women’s-yard 200 breaststroke.
The men struggled against CSEB and UC Santa Cruz in some events and finished in the middle of the pack as a team. Despite the tough competition, the men still came out on top in a few events. Junior Darrin Smith took first place in the men’s 100-yard breaststroke and second in the men’s 200-yard breaststroke. Junior Chad LeJeune was another individual standout and won the men’s 100-yard backstroke.
The next meet is women’s only and is against University of Alaska, Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alas. from Oct. 30 to 31.
