LA MIRADA, Calif. --- After a long hiatus, Biola Swim & Dive was excited to get back to competition on Saturday Jan. 21 at the SPLASH! Aquatic Center.
 
The Eagles eased back into competition by hosting a four-team dual meet in their home pool. The meet featured some strong Pacific Collegiate Swim & Dive Conference competition in SOKA, Concordia-Irvine and Azusa Pacific.
 
Both the Eagles' men and women's teams earned head-to-head victories over SOKA, making it a successful first outing back as the team began its final leg of the season. The women's team defeated SOKA 186-51 and the men won 122-51.
 
"This was our first meet since being back from the winter break, and since then our team has put in arguably more time and work than they have all season the last couple of weeks," said Head Coach Emily Mosbacher. "That being said, we went into this meet acknowledging it as one we are using as training leading up to conference and national championships, which is exactly what we did."
 
The women saw two individuals claim first-place finishes as Lisa Tixier touched the wall first in the 200-breaststroke (2:26.20) and Emily Silzel won the 500-freestyle (5:20.40).
 
Tixier's event didn't exactly fill the pool as just five women competed, but she impressed by beating the second place swimmer from Azusa by over five seconds. Silzel had one more swimmer in her event and managed a win of over nine seconds. She and Rebecca Brandt managed to complete their 500 yards in under 5:36.
 
On the men's side the Eagles saw their success come in the relays. Biola won both the 200-yard medley relay (1:40.40) and the 400-freestyle relay (1:19.00). Michael Severi and Matthew Roe headlined those efforts as they were both part of both winning relays.
 
"It is evident that the team was tired and physically broken down, but that is to be expected at this point in the season and great practice to push through and swim well even in such a state as that," said Mosbacher. "We had great competition with the other teams there, and I am proud of the way we finished."
 
The Eagles complete in their final regular season meet this upcoming Saturday (Jan. 28) at Fresno Pacific. It is a dual meet head-to-head with the Sunbirds held at Sunnyside Aquatics Center at noon.