OAKLAND, Calif. --- Biola Swim & Dive wrapped up its Bay Area trip with Saturday's Bay Area Invite hosted by Mills College and saw five swimmers make new national cuts, including Kenny Alcosiba's first of the season, in an overall solid day at the pool.
 
"I was so impressed with how well our team swam over a long day of competition," said Head Coach Eddie Shepard. "Many of our swimmers were swimming five or six events and they kept getting stronger as the meet went on."
 
One of those strong swimmers was Alcosiba. He appeared in three individual events and two relays and finished in the top-4 in each of them. Alcosiba wrapped up his first national cut of the season with his fourth-place finish in the 400-IM (4:22.46).
 
"One of the highlights on the men's side was Kenny's nationals cut," said Shepard. "He's been working really hard all year and that swim was well deserved."
 
The women's team finished third in the overall team standings, sandwiched between CSU East Bay and College of Idaho in first and second and UC Santa Cruz and Mills in fourth and fifth.
 
Shepard stressed that he was not too worried with the team finish on Saturday as he allowed the team to select whatever events they wanted to swim in rather than strategize for how to attain the most points.
 
Four of the women made very wise choices in their event selection as Abby Blake, Sophia Dammann, Christina Ali and Lisa Tixier each got new national qualifying cuts on Saturday.
 
Blake and Dammann each hit the mark in the 400-IM, swimming a 4:45.37 and 4:53.02, respectively. Blake placed second in the event and Damman fifth.
 
Ali and Tixier got their cuts in the 200-breaststroke by finishing first and second overall to out touch two swimmers from the meet champion CSU East Bay. Ali finished in 2:27.21 and Tixier came in at 2:28.89.
 
"Having Christina and Lisa take 1-2 in a tough field of competition in the 200-breaststroke was really exciting," said Shepard. "I was really encouraged by how strong the entire team looked in this early-season meet, and I think that it speaks well of what is to come."
 
In addition to those strong individual swims the women's 400-medley relay and 200-freestyle relay both finished in the top-2. Angela Kirschner joined Dammann, Ali and Tixier in the medley relay while Victoria Turner and Rebecca Brandt joined Ali and Dammann in the free relay.
 
Chad LeJeune got the only first-place finish on the men's side with hit :56.51 in the 100-backstroke. He too swam three individual events and a relay and got one individual top-3 (his win) and two top-3 finishes in the relays.
 
He was a part of Biola's third-place finishing 400-medley relay and 800-freestyle relay. The 400-medley relay finished just four seconds behind the College of Idaho team that took first. LeJeune was joined by Alcosiba, Michael Severi and Daniel Vale in swimming a 3:44.51.
 
The  800-freestyle relay featured William Granberry and LeJeune, Severi and Alcosiba. The quartet finished the 800 yards in 7:32.70.
 
Darrin Smith (100 & 200-breaststroke), Ryan Harper (200-breaststroke) and Severi (100-freestyle) added individual top-3 finishes to round out a fast day for the men.
 
The Eagles are back in the pool next Friday and Saturday as the women's team travels to Fairbanks, Alaska to go head-to-head with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.