AZUSA, Calif. --- The annual Azusa Pacific vs. Biola swim meet took place on Saturday morning with the two institution's women's swim teams going head-to-head.
 
Biola's men also competed, but since Azusa Pacific has no men's team they had no one to compete against. The Cougars' women's side got a 144-61 win in the 11-event dual meet.
 
"Ultimately, APU swam the best I've seen them swim all year and picked up a well-deserved win against us," said Head Coach Eddie Shepard. "One of the things I love about the swim community is the camaraderie that exists even between natural rivals. APU invited us to a barbecue at the conclusion of the meet and we had a great time fellowshipping together."

Prior to the barbecue fun some work had to be done in the pool, and the Eagles' women did just that. Nearly half of the women's team had at least one event where they set a new season-best in compiling some fast swims that are not necessarily reflected in the final team scores.
 
One of the most significant improvements came in Jenny Walker's 200-butterfly. The junior swam a 2:28.40 and finished in sixth-place overall, but her time was a nearly eight second improvement over her previous season-best.
 
Abby Blake also had a strong showing of improvement in the 200-breaststroke. She finished third with a 2:35.08 to drop almost two seconds from her old best time.
 
Lisa Tixier's win in the 200-butterfly (2:08.91) and Christina Ali's victory in the 200-breaststroke (2:26.09) were the Eagles' only first-place finishes on the day. Tixier's win was by nearly three seconds while Ali out-touched her second-place finisher by over seven seconds.
 
"We had great weather for the meet today and both of us came ready to race," said Shepard. "We had some very close races and overall I think we swam really strong. I was encouraged to see so many of our swimmers putting up best times for the season at this point in the year."
 
Tixier's 200-butterfly time was the only new nationals cut of the meet for Biola.
 
This team is back at it next weekend, for the fourth of four consecutive weekends of racing, as they travel to the SOKA Invitational on Saturday morning.