LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Swim and Dive opened its 2015-16 season as it always does by hosting the annual Pacific Collegiate Swim & Dive Conference relay meet on a sweltering Friday afternoon in Southern California.
 
Azusa Pacific, Concordia, Fresno Pacific and Pepperdine joined Biola for 12 different relay events. All five schools sponsored women's swimming, while just CUI, FPU and Biola sponsored men's teams.
 
"It is always fun to start off the year with a relay meet because it really brings the team together," said Head Coach Eddie Shepard. "I was extremely impressed with how strong our swimmers looked this early in the season, and it really showed me that we have a lot of potential this year."
 
Some notable relay performances on the women's side included the 3x100 yard breaststroke relay, the progressive freestyle relay and the 200-freestyle relay.
 
Christina Ali, Sophia Dammann and Jenny London combined to swim a 3:32.47 in the breaststroke relay to place third among the seven relay teams. The trio of Eagles finished just 10 seconds behind Pepperdine's 'A' team that won the event.
 
Biola also got third-place finishes from its two above-mentioned freestyle relay teams. The progressive relay is made up of four members swimming legs of 50, 100, 150 and 200 yards. Thomine Mortensen, Haley Baker, Meagan Smith and Victoria Dunbar combined to swim that 500-yard stretch in 5:03.28 to finish just behind teams from APU and FPU.
 
The Eagles also got some solid finishes on the men's side, where two first place and two second-place finishes stood out. The Biola men finished first in the 3x100-yard breaststroke and the 400-medley relay.
 
Chad LeJeune, Ryan Harper and Darrin Smith posted a 3:08.66 in the breaststroke relay to edge the second-place Concordia squad by seven seconds. In the 400-medley relay LeJeune was joined by Kenny Alcosiba, Daniel Vale and Michael Severi to post a 3:44.74 to again lead Biola to a win over Concordia.
 
The relay meet doesn't naturally lend itself too get too many swimmers qualified for nationals, but Biola did see six national qualifying times come during the first day of its season-opener.
 
Christina Ali and Rebecca Brandt both qualified in their first day representing Biola in the pool. Ali punched her ticket for nationals with a 1:06.50 in the 100-breaststroke and Brandt swam a 1:01.74 to qualify in the 100-butterfly.
 
Abby Blake and Lisa Tixier each qualified in a distance freestyle event, while Angela Kirschner locked up her qualifications in the 50-freestyle and 100-freestyle.
 
"We definitely still have some areas of growth, but I feel that we are in the right place moving forward," said Shepard. "I was especially pleased to see us racing so well against some of the top teams in our conference. I am looking forward to seeing how our student-athletes do tomorrow in the pentathlon portion of the meet."
 
The Eagles host the second half of the meet Saturday morning beginning at 10:00 a.m. at SPLASH! Aquatic Center. The second day is run as a pentathlon where the individual swimmers can choose either five freestyle events or five distance or sprint medley events.