ALISO VIEJO, Calif. --- Biola Swim & Dive moved out of Rocktober and into Slow-vember with the SOKA Invitational on Saturday this past weekend. The Eagles got four event wins and a big handful of individual and relay top-5 finishes to put up a good showing and finish middle of the pack for both genders.

Emily Silzel earned the only win on the women's side, by placing first in the 100-freestyle with a :54.57. She was also a part of the Eagles' fourth-place 200-medley relay team and placed third in the 1,000-freestyle (11:10.76).

The men saw event wins by Clayton Owens (200-backstroke - 2:02.91), Jonathan Villa (200-butterfly - 1:59.35) and Raymond Kam (100-butterfly - :53.97).

Kam and Villa went 1-2 in the 100-butterfly, with Kam beating any opposing swimmer by a second.

"I was very happy with the way the team competed today," said Head Coach Ryan Kauth. "When you come out of a hard training cycle like we do with Rock-tober, it's hard to go fast at the meets in early November. We have a saying for this month too. We call it 'Slow-vember.' I communicate to the team that I think the best time of the season to swim your worst, is early November. The expectation is that when we attend meets, we show heart, grit and toughness during our races."

The team did just that today, recording a number of other notable finishes, including in their relays.

The Eagles had top-5 finishes in the aforementioned women's 200-medley relay, seeing Silzel, Nicole Chang, Rachel Stinchcomb and Kasidee Pascoe 1:53.30, and also in the men's 200-medley relay. The men's team of Matthew Roe, Kam, Villa and Westin Dawe went 1:44.52 to finish fifth.

"Our focus going forward is setting ourselves up for a breakout meet at the Winter Invite," said Kauth. "It's tough right now, because we really have to ignore our finishes in terms of place and time, and put our attention on executing quality race strategy and swimming when we're beaten up, which everyone is at this point. However, myself and Coach Harding are liking what we see right now and are excited about what this group can do in a couple of weeks."

Up next for Biola is a trip to Alaska. The women's team will go on a road trip to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, where it will swim against the Nanooks in dual meets on both Friday and Saturday of this week.