LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The new era of Biola Swim & Dive officially began on Friday as the Eagles opened the 2016-17 season at the 2016 Pacific Collegiate Swim & Dive Conference Relay Invitational. It was the first official meet for the Eagles under new head coach Emily Mosbacher.
 
The relay invitational is a unique meet that the Eagles have used to open their season since all the way back in 2007-08. The team gets together to swim a whole bunch of non-traditional relays as a way to really warm up for the competitive season.
 
"Every time we get the opportunity to compete, we also gain another opportunity to learn and grow," said Mosbacher. "My hope is that both as a team as well as individuals, we will use the experiences of today to better ourselves for tomorrow's meet and also as we move forward through the rest of our season."
 
Between the men and the women the Eagles sent 27 different relay teams to the starting blocks to compete in events ranging from the 3x100 yard butterfly relay, to a 4x100IM relay to a strange 500 progressive relay where one person swims a 50, another a 100, another a 150 and the last a 200.
 
Three of the Eagles' relay combinations finished inside of the top-3 of their respective heats, with a handful of others coming in fourth place. Mosbacher had a team in the men's 200-yard freestyle relay, men's 800-yard freestyle relay and women's 400-yard medley relay earn "podium finishes."
 
"I was impressed by the combination of many of the athletes' efforts and performances, but two especially that stood out among the rest today were the Men's 800 free relay (Severi, Benson, McCord, Franicevich) who finished second overall behind Cal Baptist and just ahead of Concordia, as well as the Women's 400 medley relay (Harper, London, Tixier, Silzel) who finished third overall."
 
The men completed the 800 yards in 7:20.21, which helped them edge the A team from Concordia-Irvine by just over two seconds. Franicevich swam the quickest leg of the race as he completed his 200 yards in 1:48.08. This was just a hair faster than Michael Severi, who came in a 1:48.22.
 
The 400-yard medley relay was a very competitive race as five teams finished within four seconds of one another. The Eagles came out close to the top as Emily Silzel touched the wall just a second slower than the California Baptist second-place squad and .32 seconds faster than the A team from Pepperdine.
 
The Eagles finished in 4:07.78 as newcomers Bethany Harper and Emily Silzel joined Jenny London and Lisa Tixier to earn six points for the team. The team competition is definitely not a heavily impactful part of this meet, but for what it is worth the women placed fifth and the guys came in at third place.
 
"I am encouraged at where we are at and feel like we are really right where we need to be at this point," said Mosbacher. "Today, being our relay specific meet, was especially fun because it allowed the athletes' to bring their talents together as one in one race at a time"
 
The Eagles are right back in the pool at SPLASH! Aquatic Center on Saturday morning as the second part of this meet (the individual pentathlon) begins at 10:00 a.m.