LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The second-half of the season-opening meet at SPLASH! Aquatic Center took place on Saturday with Biola Swim & Dive competing at the annual Pacific Collegiate Swim & Dive Conference pentathlon meet.

Each swimmer was tasked with five individual events of varying lengths to compete in one of four pentathlon options. They could do a short or long freestyle pentathlon or short or long stroke medley pentathlon.

"It was such an amazing weekend filled with fast races and great attitudes," said senior Raymond Kam. "We definitely made a statement as we began filling up the scoresheet with Biola. The energy was very high and the atmosphere of the team made us all feel extremely motivated."

When all results were tallied the Eagles managed the third-most combined points at 302.5. Both teams also finished third in their respective events with men finishing third of the six teams and women third of eight.

The Eagles had 16 individual top-3 finishes, which included four swimmers with more than one top-3. Tanner Smith, Liza Parahnevich and Kolya Vos all carded at least three top finishes. Parahnevich led the way, finishing top-3 in four events, including a win in the 100-backstroke (1:00.38).

Parahnevich was also a part of one of the more memorable races of the day as Biola swimmers took second, third and fourth in the women's 100-breaststroke. Anna Haaksma was the top in that group, finishing second with a 1:09.99. Then came Parahnevich (1:11.06) and Celine Dong (1:11.64). 

Raymond Kam joined Parahnevich as the only Eagles with an event win on Saturday. The senior leader of the men's team won the 100-butterfly with a :52.72. 

"I am content with my performance this weekend; especially in the 100 butterfly," said Kam. "Of course, there are a couple of races which I feel like I could have done better on, but that in itself is a testament to just how hard we are working and how broken down our bodies are at the moment."

Smith was the guy who opened some eyes Saturday with his placements in the men's short freestyle pentathlon. Smith finished second in the 200-freestyle (1:46.20), and third in both the 25-freestyle (:10.55) and 100-freestyle (:48.29). 

Vos and Parahnevich stood out with their consistency in their respective pentathlons. Liza's other top finishes came with a second in the 200-IM (2:12.06) and third in the 100-freestyle (1:00.04). Vos was part of the short freestyle pentathlon and went second in the 25-freestyle (:11.93) and third in both the 50-freestyle (:25.44) and 100-freestyle (:55.06).

Back on the men's side, Clayton Owens and Gabe Weber each managed top-3 finishes to grab some solid points in their pentathlon standings. Owens went :56.60 in the 100-backstroke to place third and Weber had a 4:46.09 for the best showing in a distance event on Saturday, taking third in the 500-freestyle.

In the women's iteration of the 100-backstroke, Nicole Chang managed to get a runner-up finish with a 1:00.91. She placed only behind her teammate, Parahnevich, who had her by half a second.

Continuing the theme of underclassmen impressing, Anna Haaksma had three top-10 finishes in this one. Haaksma had the great runner-up mark in the 100-breaststroke and added a third-place in the 200-IM (2:14.57) and 9th-place in 100-backstroke (1:03.94).

"Being able to perform after a long week of hard practices just speaks for the potential of this team," said Kam. "I am super excited to continue racing with these guys because our training atmosphere pushes us to reach heights I have never reached before. I am looking forward to seeing the fruits from our hard work!"

The Eagles will enjoy the great results from this week but try to turn it right back up for the Malibu Invitational on Friday and Saturday of next week. Live video will be available for that meet at https://livestream.com/watchstadium/Pepperdinewaves