LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The good times kept rolling on the second day of the Pacific Collegiate Swim & Dive Conference championships. Biola swimmers set two new school records and helped the teams add a combined 211 points to their totals for the meet.
The men had a great day in terms of scoring, jumping all the way from 116 points to 239 as a team. The women were paced by the record-setting swims from Emily Silzel in the 500-free (5:05.50) and Lisa Tixier in the 50-free (22.98) as they upped their team score to 212.
Both of those swims would've been good enough to have the ladies in position to make it to the NCAA Division II National Championship Meet.
"Emily Silzel had a sensational 500 Freestyle and showed her uncanny ability to swim head-to-head with the best in the conference, winning the C-Final in convincing fashion," said Head Coach
Ryan Kauth. " I am incredibly proud of her and the work she has put in to ink her name on the record board. Emily has pushed the pace in workouts since day one of my arrival on campus, and I was glad that she was able to see it all pay off tonight."
Silzel's swim is a new school-best of three seconds, unseating Abby Blake's time from two years ago at the NAIA national meet.
Tixier's mark was her second-consecutive jaw-dropping swim. After obliterating the 200-freestyle record last night the senior came out with the fastest swim in the history of this women's program and earned herself a conference title in the most competitive event.
She moved up one spot from her 2017 finish in the 50-free and beat the second-place swimmer by over a half-second in a dominant showing.
"From the outside looking in, watching Lisa compete, one could assume that she is just a phenomenal swimmer and competitor," said Kauth. "Although she definitely is, what people don't see, is that she is equally as tough of a trainer. Lisa is relentless in her pursuit of perfection, and it showed tonight with her breaking of the 23-second mark in the 50."
Other swims of note include the men's 500-freestyle where junior Noah Reed and freshman Jake Allen finished back-to-back in 13th and 14th-place. Reed touched the wall in 4:52.20 and Allen came in just over three seconds later.
Rachel Stinchcomb also earned a top-15 mark with a stingy effort in the 200-IM. She touched the wall in 2:08.46 to finish 15th.
Tom Franicevich managed to get some Biola presence in the men's 50-freestyle, which featured 37 swimmers. The senior finished 15th overall with a 21.70 to earn 12 points for his team.
Both teams got a bunch of points out of the 200-freestyle relay, especially the guys as they managed a third-place finish with a time of 1:25.89. That one effort out of Matthew Roe, Daniel Vale, Andrew Benson and Franicevich earned the Eagles a whopping 54 points.
The women recorded a 1:40.13 to finish 10th and gain around 30 points too.
"After a thrilling first night of relays and three school records falling, I knew the team was feeling really inspired and confident about what they could do in the water," said Kauth. "Both the men and women were represented well tonight and continued to get better and better as the racing went on."
The men sit fifth of six and women eighth of 13 after the first half of the meet.
There's two more days of competition coming up at SPLASH! Aquatic Center. Friday's prelims are set to begin at 9:30 a.m. across the street from Biola. Tomorrow night's finals feature the 400-IM, 100-butterfly, 200-freestyle, 100-breaststroke, 100-backstroke and 400-medley relay.
See which Biolan is competing in which event in the link up top. Follow the rest of the meet with LIVE RESULTS by downloading the MEET MOBILE APP on your connected device.