MALIBU, Calif. --- It was a good day in paradise as Biola Swim & Dive had its chance to compete against all levels of NCAA and NAIA competition at the Pepperdine Malibu Invite. 

The men's full team competed while the women sent just the divers to give it a go. The Eagles had nine individual top-5 finishes and saw both its 200-medley relay and 200-freestyle relay teams make top-5, too.

The performance was good enough for second among non-NCAA Division I schools and fourth overall. The Eagles finished with 195 total points on the men's side, with the women's divers racking up 17 points.

The day began with diving, seeing Ashley Vitale and Chloe Hartman leading the way for BU. Vitale had solid marks in the one-meter and three-meter boards, placing third in both events with a 158.95 and 163.40, respectively. Harman was just behind Vitale in the one-meter, finishing fourth with a 157.35.

Raymond Kam, James Gamette, Andrew Benson and Tanner Smith swam the top team of the 200-medley relay to kick-off the swimming events in the afternoon. They finished fifth overall as the top NCAA Division II school with a 1:37.50.

"There was no better way to keep our momentum rolling than to perform how we performed today after turning a couple obstacles from the weather into positive energy," said Gamette. 

The other relay capped the day and saw the Eagles finish fourth in the 200-freestyle relay (1:29.33).

Kam, Benson and Gamette did not just finish top-5 in the relay, but they also had some fantastic individual swims as well. Gamette went fifth in the 200-breaststroke with a 2:18.16 and added a fifth-place finish in the 100-breaststroke (1:01.16). He finished just behind Kam in the latter event. The senior placed fourth with a 1:00.17.

"It was great to bond with the team in such a nice campus against d1 teams," said Gamette. "The team and I swam better than ever and I couldn't be more motivated to perform at Bay Area in two weeks!"

Benson led a strong event for Biola with a third-place finish in the 50-freestyle. He went :22.18 to drop almost half-a-second from his entry time. Kyle De Villiers joined Benson in the top-5 in the 50-freestyle, also dropping time with his fifth-place mark of :22.51.

Freshman Gabe Weber rounded out the top finishes when he went 4:42.47 in the 500-freestyle to place third in the only distance event of the day. It was almost five seconds swifter than his entry time.

The season continued on Oct. 25-26 at UC Santa Cruz (Friday) and the Bay Area Invitational (Saturday).