AZUSA, Calif. --- Biola Swim & Dive got an early start on re-igniting the rivalry with Azusa Pacific on Saturday morning as Head Coach Emily Mosbacher's crew went head-to-head with the Cougars and Chapman Panthers during a double-dual meet in Azusa.
 
Biola's women defeated Chapman head-to-head and kept it close with Azusa and coach Mosbacher really liked what she saw out of the group. The addition of Chapman to the meet also made it so that Biola's men had swimmers to compete against since APU has no men's side.
 
"It seemed to take us a few races to get into the groove of things today, but we certainly got up and moving throughout the meet with some strong performances to finish the meet," said Mosbacher.
 
The Eagles had three new NAIA National Qualifying efforts this morning as Rachel Stinchcomb carved out another event to compete in with a 4:55.39 in the 400-IM, Lisa Tixier finished the 200-butterfly in 2:10.54 and Emily Silzel earned a top-3 finish with a 5:25.06 in the 500-freestyle.
 
The race that stood out on the men's side was the 200-freestyle relay. Daniel Vale, Raymond Kam, Andrew Benson and Michael Severi combined for a 1:32.65 to blast the competition out of the water and earn a three-second victory. It was one of seven top-3 finishes for the men.
 
"The men's 200 free relay took first as the last and final event of the day, which made a great finish to the meet," said Mosbacher. "It's always encouraging to see members of the team qualify for nationals as well, and we had several again today on the women's side."
 
Tixier's finish in the 200-butterfly was the Eagles' only first-place finish on the women's side against a very deep field of competition from APU and Chapman.
 
The 200- and 400-freestyle relays each placed in the top-3 three and Silzel, Bethany Harper (1,650-free), Stinchcomb (400-IM), and Jenny London (200-breaststroke) also finished top-3 individually.
 
The men got another relay win in the 400-freestyle relay as Tom Franicevich, Kam, Matt Roe and Severi swam 3:52.12 to beat the Chapman team by over 11 seconds.
 
Benson, who swam in the Eagles' winning 200-freestyle relay, had one of the most notable days on the guy's side as he earned victories in the 200-freestyle (1:49.72) and the 500-freestyle (5:02.70) to flex his distance swimming muscles.
 
Biola Swim & Dive is right back in the pool next week as it competes at the SOKA Invitational in Aliso Viejo. The meet begins at 10:00 a.m. and you all should go check it out. The pool is really, really nice
.