After facing losses at the past two meets, the swim team displayed high levels of excellence and effort at the Soka Invitational. Biola faced previous conference rival, Concordia University Irvine, and competed against Azusa Pacific University again after last weekend’s meet.

Continuing Success

The women continued their success in relay events this season with a second place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. In addition, the relay team composed of sophomore Lisa Tixier, junior Christina Ali and seniors Abby Blake and Angela Kirschner finished first in the 400-yard freestyle relay, an event they shined in at other meets this season.

The other teams excelled in the freestyle events, creating a challenge for the women, but Biola rose to the occasion and still performed well. Junior Christina Ali placed fifth in the women’s 200-yard freestyle, Tixier placed first in the women’s 50-yard freestyle and Kirschner came in third in the women’s 100-yard freestyle only .01 behind second place.  

Distance Freestyle

Although the other teams took the top spots in the majority of the freestyle events, Biola succeeded in the distance freestyle events at this meet. Blake continued her success in distance freestyle events this season, placing second in the 500-yard freestyle. Freshman Noah Reed and senior William Granberry took second and third place in the men’s 500-yard freestyle, respectively.

The team also demonstrated high levels of effort and excellence in other events at this meet. Kirschner took second in the 100-yard backstroke and Ali placed first in the women’s 100-yard breaststroke. Blake finished second place in the women’s 200-yard backstroke and third in the women’s 200-yard IM. Tixier and freshman Jenny London also took second and third place in the women’s 200-yard breaststroke. In addition, Michael Severi from the men’s team overcame CI’s swimmers and took first in the 200-yard freestyle.

On the men’s team, senior Kenny Alcosiba and junior Darrin Smith placed second and third in the men’s 100-yard backstroke, respectively. Severi took fourth in the men’s 100-yard freestyle. Alcosiba also placed first in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Relatively Close

Overall, the top three in the women’s teams finished relatively close in points. CUI finished first with 360 points, APU took second with 335 points, and Biola placed third with 320 points. CUI’s men’s team also took first and Biola came in second place.

At this meet, sophomore Dominique Kaijser swam an event she normally does not compete in — the 200-yard butterfly. Although she did not do as well as she hoped, she enjoyed swimming this event and hopes to keep training and improve her time.

“When I finished, my muscles were completely used and I could barely get out of the pool, but it was just so worth it anyway and I would really want to do it again,” Kaijser said.

Encouragement

Alcosiba said the meet overall was very encouraging because many swimmers on the team recorded strong times and earned national cuts.

“It was really cool to see people swimming their best times just because we’re not really supposed to be swimming out best times — we’re not really rested or anything, but that means we’ll have a good taper meet next month,” Alcosiba said.

Freshman Andrew Daughters said seeing other swimmers achieve their goals boosts team morale and encourages other swimmers not improving at the level they desire.

“For those that aren’t making their best times already, it’s cool to see other people making their best times, and it shows us that it’s possible to reach those goals that we are going towards,” Daughters said.

Next

The team’s next competition will take place after Thanksgiving break on Dec. 5 at Chapman University.