OAKLAND, Calif. --- It was a long, long day for Biola Swim & Dive, but a very, very good day for the team as well. The Eagles managed to win four of their six head-to-head dual meets at the Mills College Double Dual meet, despite the fact they came into the meet right after waking up at 4:30 a.m. and taking a six-hour bus ride to get up to Oakland.

"The team competed well and had a lot of fun doing it," said Head Coach Ryan Kauth. "We had solid competition with one of the best teams in NCAA Division II, CSU East Bay, and one of the best teams in the NAIA, College of Idaho."

The men's team had two head-to-head competitors, College of Idaho and SOKA. They managed a 161-20 win over SOKA while dropping the meet against the upstart 'Yotes.

The women had a larger pool of competition, with SOKA, Mills, College of Idaho and CSU East Bay all in the pool. The ladies got wins in three of those four, including a 169-30 win over Mills and 169-29 win over SOKA with an array of impressive individual performances.

"Both the men and women continue to show why they belong in the conversation with anyone they swim," said Kauth. "With everyone simming five or six events tomorrow it was very important for them to get mentally prepared with encouraging swims today. I think they did just that."

Biola had three individuals earn event wins. Emily Silzel won the 200-freestyle (1:47.49) by three seconds and finished second in the 100-freestyle (:54.49) by just about a second in a pair of strong showings.

Nicole Chang was the other female to win an event. She took the top spot in the 100-backstroke race (1:00.69) by touching the wall just about a half-second faster than her competition.

Westin Dawe earned the men's only individual win with his swim in the 100-freestyle (:50.66). His race was just as close as Chang's with less than a second separating him from the 'Yote trailing just behind.

Kauth also mentioned some other standout swims being Faith McAllister's showings in the 100-butterfly (1:01.31) and 200-IM (2:16.83), Kasidee Pascoe's 1,000-freestyle (11:13.72) and 100-yard split as part of the 400-freestyle relay, Matthew Roe's fourth-place showing in the 100-breaststroke (1:04.58) and Jonathan Villa's fourth-place mark in the 200-IM (2:07.69). ]

These teams (and more) are back in the water tomorrow at Mills College for the annual Bay Area Invite. The meet starts at 10:00 a.m. and will once again have no live results available. We will post results to our site as soon as we receive them.