MALIBU, Calif. --- Biola Swim & Dive hit the road for the first time in its 2016-17 season on Saturday as it swam at Pepperdine University's annual Malibu Invite. It was the Eagles' first time in Malibu since back in 2013.
 
It was a very busy day for the Eagles' swimmers with most of Head Coach Emily Mosbacher's troops swimming four or five individual events in the two-part meet. There was a morning session and afternoon session that allowed for a little bit of reprieve, but not enough to make the meet any less challenging.
 
"The Malibu meet is always one we look forward to as a team. There are a bunch of teams compiled from different divisions, both NAIA and NCAA, so we can always count on great competition," said Mosbacher. "Because there are two parts of the meet (Middle distance in the morning and Sprint in the afternoon), everyone typically swims more events than they normally would."
 
Lisa Tixier made the most of her five individual appearances. She finished inside of the top-4 in four of those events and placed eighth in the lengthy 200-yard breaststroke. The biggest event she swam in was the 100-yard individual medley. She finished second, which was her best finish of the day, and her 1:00.22 was just 1.5 seconds behind the first-place swimmer who set a new meet record at this historic event.
 
Rachel Stinchcomb was another strong performer for the women's team. Her two top finishes were in the 50-backstroke (9^th place - :29.17) and the 200-backstroke (13^th – 2:14.39).
 
Newcomers made another strong impression on the men's side as Tom Franicevich, Raymond Kam and Matthew Roe recorded some strong individual finishes.
 
Franicevich finished inside of the top-20 in the two most competitive swims of the day as he finished 20^th in the 50-freestyle (:22.85) and 15^th in the 100-freestyle (:49.41).
 
Kam and Roe were both highlighted for their efforts in their 50-yard events. Kam finished just 21-hundreths of a second behind Franicevich in the 50-freestyle to finish 22^nd, while Roe put out a great effort in the 50-yard backstroke to earn a top-10 finish (10^th - :26.30).
 
The Eagles' efforts resulted in six more qualifications for NAIA nationals during the second week of the season. These positive results came despite the relative lack of rest the team has been able to experience as it's in the middles of back-to-back-to-back meets.
 
Biola travels a bit further up the coast next weekend as it competes at Mills College in a dual meet and Bay Area Invite on Friday and Saturday.
 
"There hasn't really been much rest for our team, but we will continue to train hard this week as we enter into Friday and Saturday's meet," said Mosbacher.