COLUMBUS, Georgia --- It was another exciting day of competition for Biola Swim and Dive during the second-to-last day of swimming at the 2016 NAIA National Championships.
 
The Eagles added a new national champion as Lisa Tixier finished first in the 100-butterfly to claim the first individual championship of her two-year career. She won the event by over a quarter of a second over the second-place finisher from Olivet Nazarene with her final time of :55.29.
 
Tixier now has two individual All-American honors through her first two individual swims of the meet. She was awarded second in yesterday's 50-freestyle after an appeal of the result was denied.
 
"It was incredibly exciting to see Lisa win the 100-butterfly and follow in the footsteps of her sister," said Head Coach Eddie Shepard. "Lisa has had so many incredible swims for us in the past two years and she is more than deserving of her first title that she won today."
 
Another big moment came when Abby Blake worked her way into the finals in both the 200-freestyle and the 400-IM. The senior finished inside of the top-10 in both events and set a lifetime best in the 200-freestyle finals (1:56.04).
 
Blake finished 7^th, 7^th and 10^th in her three individual events during her final trip to the NAIA National Championship meet.
 
"Today, it was especially exciting for us to see Abby Blake swim her last individual races of her career," said Shepard. "She had the swims of her life in the morning session and made it back in both events. It was a very emotional time for the whole team, and we are so proud of how well Abby has represented Biola these past four years."
 
Friday's competition saw two more relays completed as the schools competed in the 200-freestyle relay and the 400-medley relay.
 
Tixier, Rebecca Brandt, Haley Baker and Angela Kirschner represented the women's team in the 200-freestyle relay. The group finished the finals in 1:36.90 to fall one spot shy of All-American contention in fourth place.
 
The men's 200-freestyle relay was comprised of Darrin Smith, Daniel Vale, William Granberry and Edward Campana. The Eagles made the finals and finished 14^th overall with a 1:28.23
 
Kirschner, Ali, Brandt and Tixier grasped All-American honors with an adventurous third-place finish in the 400-medley relay. The group was in eighth place after the first 100 and made up a huge gap to finish one one-hundredth of a second ahead of fourth-place Brenau.
The men's team of Campana, Smith Charles Nanfria and Vale swam a 3:32.71 to finish one spot shy of the top-10 in 11^th after the finals.
 
On the men's side another senior had his final individual events at the national meet as Campana finished off his individual career with the 100-backstroke. He was the only male to make it into the finals in an individual event and came away with an 11^th-place finish (:52.62).
 
"I was so excited to see Edward make it back for an evening swim in the 100-backstroke to finish his individual college swimming career," said Shepard. "He has had his up's and down's this season, but I was so proud of him for being able to get everything together to put up some great performances this entire meet."
 
Finally, Christina Ali set a new school record in the 100-breaststroke. The one-year transfer finished third overall to earn All-American status with her record-breaking swim (1:04.86). It's her individual All-American honors.
 
Jenny London also made it into the finals in that event and finished 11^th overall with a 1:07.70.
 
Following two and a half days of competition Biola's women sit fourth of 20 schools with 238 points. The men's team is 12^th of 19 with 88 points. In the combined scores standings Biola University ranks fifth overall.
 
"Even though the team is tired, I know that they are all really excited to see what this last day of competition has in store for them," said Shepard.
 
The year's competition concludes on Saturday as the Columbus Aquatic Center hosts the 200-backstroke, 100-freestyle, 200-breaststroke, 200-butterfly, 1,650-freestyle and the 400-freestyle relay.