LONG BEACH, Calif. — Freshmen April Smith and Paul Mendoza established new school records while eight swimmers recorded 13 new qualifying times as the Biola University swim team took part in the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Championships in Long Beach last week.
As a team, the Eagles placed in the middle of the pack which was dominated by a number of talented NCAA Division I and Division II schools. The women took 10th place overall out of 14 teams at the meet while the men placed seventh out of nine schools.
Mendoza, Biola's distance specialist, broke two school records during the meet at the Belmont Olympic Plaza. He beat his old record in the 400 IM with a time of 4:18.98 to finish 11th overall. Mendoza then closed out the meet with a fifth place finish in the mile, finishing in a school record time of 16:38.67. It was the second-best finish by an NAIA athlete at the meet (behind defending NAIA Champ Brad Terwilliger of Cal Baptist) and the highest a Biola swimmer has placed at the PCSC championships in a number of years.
Smith also swam well for the Eagles, recording personal best times in all of the events she swam including a new school record time of 1:08.67 in the 100 breaststroke.
Biola added three new swimmers to its list of NAIA qualifiers. Junior Jeremy Davidson earned his first cut of the season after re-joining the team in January following a semester in Massachusetts. Davidson punched his ticket in the 200 back with a 2:09.85. He was just off the qualifying standard in the 100 back, but still hopes to record it this week during a last chance meet.
Senior Brittany Sharpe recorded three new qualifying times to earn a trip to San Antonio for the NAIA Championships. Sharpe qualified in the 200 free (2:01.78), the 500 free (5:34.41) and the mile swim (19:32.86) during the PCSC meet.
Junior Allison Wright was the Eagles' other new qualifier, swimming a 2:25.26 in the 200 back to earn a spot at nationals.
Biola also had five other swimmers record new qualifying marks in addition to qualifying in other events earlier in the season. Senior Alison Patt picked up two new cuts in the 50 free (25.99) and the 100 Fly (1:04.92) to go along with her existing cut in the 200 fly. Freshman Brian Shepard also added two new qualifying times, swimming a 49.33 in the 100 free and a 55.92 in the 100 fly.
Rounding out the new qualifying times were senior Christina Piakak in the 50 free (25.76), junior Sarah Warkentin in the 50 free (25.73) and freshman Emily Mosbacher in the 100 fly (1:02.30).
Despite suffering a nasty fall while standing on wet bleachers during the meet, Biola head coach Eddie Shepard was all smiles after his team's strong performance.
"Overall, I thought that both the men and women did very well," said Shepard. "Conference allowed our swimmers a great opportunity to see some very fast competition and swim at a high caliber meet. After seeing how well the team performed last week, I think that they will swim extremely well at Nationals."
Coach Shepard also had high praise for his freshman record-breakers.
"I was very surprised to see several of our school records broken even before our National Meet," said Shepard. "April and Paul both had several exceptional swims this weekend. They have been working hard since the beginning of September, and I think that they will perform even stronger at Nationals.
"These two freshman are ranked very high in their prospective events at Nationals, and I think that they have a good chance of placing in the top three," said Shepard.
A few Biola swimmers who are still looking to qualify for the NAIA Championships will take part in a last-chance meet on Wednesday at Cal Baptist.
From there, the last stop of the season for the Eagles is the NAIA Championship meet in San Antonio, Texas, February 27-March 1.
Complete results from the PCSC Meet can be found on the conference's website at http://pacificswimanddive.org.
