OAKLAND, Calif. --- Biola Swim & Dive was up at 5:00 a.m. as per usual this morning, but rather than being in the pool for practice they were on a bus headed up to Oakland for the afternoon's quad-meet featuring Mills College, College of Idaho and CSU East Bay.
 
The women's team defeated Mills College and College of Idaho to win two of their three meets, while the men defeated College of Idaho in its only event of the day.
 
"After traveling on the road for nearly eight hours, our team was excited to get moving in the water, and they did well to prove it," said Head Coach Emily Mosbacher. "We had three national qualifying swims and many very close, which will be exciting for tomorrow's meet since many of the same events be raced again tomorrow."
 
Today's event was a bit of a prequel for tomorrow's Bay Are Invitational, which is also hosted by Mills College.
 
Lisa Tixier notched two new national qualifying cuts with a 2:09.26 in the 200-yard individual medley and a 53.55 in the 100-freestyle. She also won both events.
 
Tixier's no stranger to national cuts, but freshman Bethany Harper made a splash by wrapping up her first NAIA National Championship meet cut in her collegiate career. Harper finished fourth overall in the 200-freestyle and posted a time of 2:02.18 to earn herself a trip to Georgia next spring.
 
Both teams were near the top in many events as Biola had four top-3 relays and 15 top-3 individual finishes.
 
Tixier and Jenny London combined with two newcomers, Emily Silzel and Rachel Stinchcomb, to finish first overall in the 200-yard medley relay. It was the only relay win on the women's side, but it was impressive as the Eagles finished first in a field of 10 with a 1:54.81.
 
The men won the same relay with a team of Raymond Kam, Daniel Vale, Michael Severi and Matthew Roe. The group swam a 1:43.18 to beat the 'Yotes' top team by a second and a half.
 
Kam had another really strong meet as he claimed a first place finish in the 100-breaststroke (1:00.38) and second in the 100-butterfly (:54.32).
 
Other top-3 individual finishes on the men's side came from Wes McCord, Andrew Benson, Tom Franicevich, Andrew Corl, Vale, Roe, Severi and Noah Reed.
 
"Today's meet was a great start to our weekend as we face more teams tomorrow at our invitational," said Mosbacher. "After a good night rest tonight, I expect we will do very well again in tomorrow."
 
The Eagles begin competition at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.