LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- Biola got off to a quick start to the 2013-14 season when they put in plenty of strong individual performances at Saturday's Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference pentathlon.
 
The event featured three different pentathlons that the individual swimmers could participate in: a short medley pentathlon, a long medley pentathlon and a freestyle pentathlon.
 
Head Coach Eddie Shepard entered swimmers into only the two more lengthy pentathlons to push them quickly into the season.
 
"Overall today went great," said Shepard. "We had two women place in the top 10 and had a lot of women qualify for nationals. The team swam really well, they were right where I wanted them to be, as they have been working really hard in and out of the pool."
 
Biola placed seventh of eight squads on the women's side, and fourth of five in the men's competition. Loyola Marymount sat atop the women's standings and California Baptist won the men's competition.
 
Christine Tixier accumulated the most points on the day for the Eagles, picking up 58 points in the individual medley pentathlon. She placed second in the 100-butterfly (:57.81) and 100-breaststroke (1:09.37) and sixth in the 200-IM (2:15.14) and added two other top 20 finishes.
 
Angela Kirschner was another standout swimmer for the BU women, picking up 24 points to lead the Eagles in the freestyle pentathlon. She finished in the top 16 of all five events and placed eighth in the 25-freestyle (:11.97).
 
Abby Blake, Sarah Shepard and Victoria Turner also added some good finishes for Biola, picking up a combined 29 points. Blake managed to add an NAIA qualifying time placing seventh in the 500-freestyle (5:21.68) and just missed by placing 17^th in the 200-freestyle (2:03.60).
 
Brandon Hughes came out quick on the men's side, grabbing 19 points and top 25 finishes in the 200-freestyle (1:53.13), 25-freestyle (:10.40) and the 100-freestyle (:49.27).
 
Kenny Alcosiba was the standout among the few Biola swimmers who participated in the IM pentathlon, picking up 24 points with four top 16 places.
 
His best performances came with an eighth place finish in the 100-breaststroke (1:06.62) and a 10^th place in the 100-backstroke (:59.50).
 
"Kenny did a great job in the IM, he was not in the top 10, but he came very close," said Shepard.
 
Next up, the Eagles will compete in two separate meets at the end of October as the women's squad will travel to Alaska to dual with University of Alaska-Fairbanks and the men's contingent travels to Pepperdine for the Malibu Invitational.
 
"Fairbanks is a pretty strong squad, so I want to give the girls a hard week of workouts to help them feel confident against the tough competition," said Shepard. "For the guys, the Malibu Invitational is always a meet we swim well in, so we are just going to focus on performing and shaving time from this meet."