PLACENTIA, Calif. --- Celine Dong joins Biola Swim & Dive after developing her stroke through four varsity seasons at nearby Valencia High School. Dong specializes in breaststroke and can also swim freestyle and compete on relays when called upon.

She comes to the Eagles' program after helping her high school team to Empire League championships in both 2017 and 2018. Dong was named the Most Valuable Swimmer on that 2018 championship team and was twice honored as the Most Inspirational Swimmer in her program.

Her high school journey provided lots of opportunities to compete at big meets as she was a three-time CIF meet qualifier and twice was a medalist at the state's most important meet. She was a part of a 200-freestyle relay team that found the podium in 2017 and managed to become an individual medalist in 2018 with a strong swim in the 100-breaststroke.

Dong was twice an All-Empire League first teamer and won the conference title in the 100-breaststroke during her junior season. She holds the record or is top-5 all-time at Valencia High School in the 200-freestyle relay, 100-breaststroke, 200-medley relay and 400-freestyle relay.

The freshman chose to continue her academic and athletic pursuits at Biola, because "Biola has a wonderful environment for me to grow in my faith, improve academically and continue to pursue my swim career."

The Eagles begin their 2018-19 season with an intrasquad meet at Lansing Pool on Sept. 29.