LA MIRADA, Calif. --- A trio of freshman led the way for the Biola swim and dive teams at the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference Relay and Pentathlon meet, opening the 2012-13 season with solid showings all around at the Splash Aquatics Center on Friday and Saturday.

The official kick-off to the season saw Biola shake off any signs of sluggishness with strong performances on Friday and Saturday. Despite competing against some of the top teams in NCAA Division I and II, the Eagles came out ready to begin the long season.

Freshman Abby Blake started out her Biola career by breaking a 13-year-old school record in the 500 free with a time of 5:13.38. The previous record of 5:14.14 had stood since the 1999 season without being seriously challenged. Her time won the event, beating out two NCAA Division I swimmers, and started Saturday off with a big win.

Saturday's pentathlon races featured swimmers competiting in a variety of events with combined times determining winners in the freestyle and IM events. Sophomore Christine Tixier placed third overall in the long pentathlon, winning the 100 fly in a time of 57.15. She also placed third in the 100 breaststroke, (1:08.73), third in the 200 IM (2:11.36) and 10th in the 100 free (55.32).

Freshman Angela Kirshner finished 10th in the freestyle pentathlon by finishing in the top 16 in four of the five freestyle events. She was 10th in the 25 free (12.10), 12th in the 100 free (55.95) and 14th in the 500 free (5:34.46).

On the men's side, senior Chris Stutzman placed third in the freestyle pentathlon thanks in large part to placing second in the 25 free (9.89) and the 100 free (47.56). He was also sixth in the 50 free (21.51), seventh in the 200 free (1:49.52) and eighth in the 500 free (5:03.45).

Freshman Brandon Hugues finished eighth overall in the IM Pentathlon with a sixth place finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.72), eighth in the 100 back (57.51) and 10th in the 100 butterfly (55.14).

"I was thrilled to see so many of our swimmers swimming close to their best times this early in the season," said Head Coach Eddie Shepard. "We try to use this meet as a training platform for the rest of the season. Our swimmers have been working extremely hard the past couple of weeks and came into this meet on very little rest. Considering the caliber of teams that were at the meet, I think that our swimmers performed amazingly.

"I really look forward to seeing all the hard work that they have put in the past six weeks pay off aas we continue through the season," Shepard added.

Biola returns to the pool for another tough meet, traveling to Malibu to take part in the Malibu Invitational hosted by Pepperdine University on Saturday, October 27.