SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Freshman Paul Mendoza took second place in the mile swim to pace the Biola swim team on Saturday in the final day of the NAIA National Championships at the Palo Alto Natatorium in San Antonio, Texas.
Biola's women's team finished eighth overall out of the 24 teams at the meet, while the men took home 10th place overall out of 16 men's teams.
The Eagles were again led by freshmen Paul Mendoza and April Smith. Mendoza had a record-shattering, All-American performance in the 1650 freestyle, coming in second overall with a time of 16:06.86. He smashed his previous school record of 16:38.67 which he set at the PCSC Conference meet two weeks ago.
Smith came out in the morning prelims of the 200 Breaststroke with a time of 2:27.39, setting a new school record. Her time of 2:27.18 in the finals Saturday night gave her a fifth place finish and an improvement on her morning record.
Mendoza and Smith were not the only Eagles to break records today. Sophomore Zach Perkins set the school record in the 100 Freestyle during the leadoff leg of the 400 Free Relay. Perkins' time of 47.65 narrowly beat out the old record of 47.67.
Other notable performances came from senior Christina Piakak, who took 15th place in the 200 fly with a time of 2:18.64, junior Sarah Warkentin who placed 14th in the 100 free with a time of 55.21, and freshman Erika Johnson who finished 11th in the 1650 free with a time of 18:33.33.
The 400 freestyle relay team of Smith, Emily Mosbacher, Alison Patt, and Warkentin had a sixth place finish with a time of 3:42.40. On the men's side, Perkins, Brian Shepard, Mendoza, and Ben Oviedo took ninth in the 400 free relay in 3:13.48.
There were also eight scholar athletes from Biola who were honored during the final night of the National Championships. Scholar athletes must be a junior or senior with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher. Biola's Scholar Athletes were: Sarah Warkentin, Meghan Samsvick, Ali Patt, Alison Wright, Jaclynn Petrilli, Elena Fernandez, Kyle Dingman, and Jeremy Davidson.
