FRESNO, Calif. --- Biola Swim & Dive concluded its 2016-17 regular season with a Saturday morning dual meet against Fresno Pacific in sunny Central California.
 
This meet is traditionally the most challenging one on the schedule because the team drives up early in the morning, competes and then drives home right after. It also comes on the heels of three weeks of two-a-day practices over interterm.
 
All that to say, the Eagles showed tremendous mental fortitude and grit as they competed with the Sunbirds on Saturday. Both teams suffered losses in terms of the team scores, but had many things to be proud of when all was said and done.
 
"There's no denying that the team is physically broken down from their training, but it's exactly where we want to be as we head into the final phase of our season," said Head Coach Emily Mosbacher. "They have been working incredibly hard these last four weeks, and I am so proud of all they have done, this meet included."
 
Emily Silzel and Lisa Tixier each earned individual event wins to highlight the day. Silzel was the only Eagle to earn multiple event wins as she finished first in both the 100-breaststroke (1:09.23) and 100-freestyle (:55.02).
 
Tixier's win came in the 50-freestyle (:24.38) as she out-touched the second-place swimmer from FPU by just four-tenths of a second.
 
"If there was any one swimmer of the meet, it was Emily Silzel who won both of her individual events and contributed greatly to both A relays," said Mosbacher.
 
The Eagles' 'A' relays did well throughout the day. The women placed second in both the 200-freestyle relay and the 200-medley relay. The men's group of Matthew Roe, Raymond Kam, Daniel Vale and Michael Severi combined to finish second in the Eagles' top-finishing relay, the 200-medley relay.
 
The meet also included diving and both Biola teams experienced good results there. Returning national champion Shane Brinson finished second in both the one-meter and three-meter dive and newcomer Torie Kuykendall finished second in a strong showing in the one-meter board.
 
"This was really our last push of hard interterm training before heading into taper training this month, some for Conference in February and others for Nationals the first week of March," said Mosbacher. "Fresno is a tough team to compete against, but our team held on and gave it what they've got at this point, which in the end will lead them to even further success when it comes to taper and resting for the Championship meets."
 
Biola's next event is the PCSC Conference Championships from Feb. 9-12 at East LA College.