SOUTH GATE, Calif. --- A relay fell and five swimmers earned new national cuts on a rare Sunday of competition during the final day of the 2015 Collegiate Winter Invite hosted by La Verne.
 
Both teams finished third overall in the team standings, which is great, but the real point of this meet was for Head Coach Eddie Shepard to get as many of his swimmers qualified for the NAIA National Championships as possible.
 
Abby Blake had one of the most impressive swims of the day as she broke her own school record in the 500-freestyle for the second time this season with a 5:12.34 to finish third in the finals.
 
No records fell on the men's side, but two Eagles earned national qualifying times. Edward Campana got his first national cut of the season after missing a large chunck of time due to injury. He went :48.25 to finish fourth in the 100-freestyle behind two swimmers from La Verne and the winner from Concordia.
 
Kenny Alcosiba was the other male to earn a national qualifying cut, when he went 2:14.18 to finish second in the 200-breaststroke.
 
"I was also so impressed this meet by Alcosiba's performance," said Shepard. "On top of his great swims earlier in the meet, Kenny came out today and swam a lifetime best in the 200-breaststroke to finish second and earn another event at Nationals."
 
On the women's side three familiar faces earned more nationals cuts as Haley Baker (100-freestyle), Rebecca Brandt (100-freestyle) and Sophia Dammann (200-butterfly) filled up their event cards for the meet in Georgia later this year.
 
"I was so proud and impressed with how well our team finished the meet today," said Shepard. "They were all really exhausted after two long days of swimming, but they pulled together as a team and supported each other and finished well above my expectations."
 
In addition to all the personal-bests and national cuts the teams competed really well against teams with a lot of swimming depth. Biola saw seven individuals and two relays earn top-three finishes on Sunday in a very strong end to the three-day meet.
 
The women's team won the 400-freestyle relay as a team of Christina Ali, Baker, Lisa Tixier and Angela Kirschner posted a 3:32.63 to edge out two teams from Azusa Pacific and another from Concordia in a satisfying four-second win.
 
"The highlight of the night was the 4x100 free relay," said Shepard. "We were up against some really strong relay teams but our women rallied together to put up an incredible relay performance and won the event by 3.5 seconds."
Over the course of the three days Biola's women's relay teams beat Concordia in all relays and only lost to Azusa Pacific once. Not too shabby.
 
Shane Brinson competed in the men's one-meter dive on Sunday and finished second with a 224.70.
 
The Eagles will take the Christmas and New Year off before getting back into action for the final leg of the 2015-16 season as they host Azusa Pacific and CSU East Bay on Jan. 16 at SPLASH!.
 
"I know that the swimmers are very tired and gearing up for finals this coming week, and I am so glad that they will be able to go into winter break on such a successful note after a long fall of training and competition," said Shepard.