LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The future is looking very bright for Biola Swim & Dive after a phenomenal finish to a fantastic Pacific Collegiate Swim & Dive Conference championship meet. The Eagles had two freshman break a school record and two other win individual championships on a splashy last day of competition.

Today was a great day to celebrate the end of the careers of a great group of seniors, but also became a day to celebrate the future of this up-and-coming NCAA Division II program. Four records fell on Saturday as Katelyn Harper set the mark in the 1,650, Raymond Kam bettered the mark in the 200-breaststroke and then Matthew Roe broke and re-broke the record in the 100-IM.

Clayton Owens and Jonathan Villa made a big impression with event wins in Saturday night's finals. Owens was the first to finish atop a leader board with a 1:55.36 in the 200-backstroke. After that, Villa came in with a 1:55.03 in the 200-butterfly to earn a win. Both men beat their closest competition by almost two full seconds. Villa's time in the 200-butterfly is the fourth new school record.

Harper's record-breaking time of 17:51.29 was good enough to win her heat and place fifth overall in the 1,650. Her time was almost 25 seconds faster than her previous best swim in that event.

Kam set the 200-breaststroke mark at 2:07.71 in the morning swim and turned around to go 2:07.26 in the event's finals, placing third overall. Roe broke Kam's record in the 100-IM with a morning time of :53.50. He then turned around and improved on that time for the finals, going :53.27 to finish second at less than a half-second behind the winner.

Villa waited until the 200-butterfly finals to unleash his best swim of the meet. The freshman went two and a half seconds faster than his season-best coming into the meet to win the event going away and broke another one of Kam's records with the 1:55.03.

None of the event winners or record holders today were seniors. Meaning that Head Coach Ryan Kauth theoretically has all that talent returning next year, in addition to a new crop of speedy recruits.

The final relay of the meets (the 400-freestyle) was the Eagles' best relay effort of the weekend. The women's team of Kasidee Pascoe, Annie Bristow, Rebecca Brandt and Emily Silzel went 3:33.57 to finish just ahead of their rivals from Concordia Irvine in fifth place. The men's relay team placed fourth at less than half a second behind the group from UC Santa Cruz. Roe, Kam, Villa and Owens combined to swim 3:11.84.

Outside of the record breakers and winners Biola got plenty of quality swims up and down the roster to gain points in the overall standings. Rachel Stinchcomb placed sixth in the women's 200-butterfly with a time of 2:09.61 and Faith McAllister also landed in the top-10 in that event with a season-best 2:09.96. Joining those two in a strong event for BU was Annie Bristow, who finished 10th overall (2:10.38).

The 200-fly was also strong for the men, with Villa taking the win and Andrew Holmes recording a top-5 finish (fourth) at 1:59.83. 

Biola's men finished fourth overall with 793 points. Concordia Irvine won the men's meet with 1,474 points (19 ahead of second-place UCSC). The women's team placed eighth with 611.5 total points. CSU East Bay won the women's title in a blowout with 1,306 points.

Katelyn Harper ended up as Biola's highest-scoring female in the meet with 55 total points. Clayton Owens, guided by his event win, paced the men's side with 83 total points. Kam, who set records in three different events this week, was not too far behind him with 81 points.

Thank you to the seniors who have given their time at Biola to train hard and compete for this program. We wish you well in whatever comes next!

For Biola Swim & Dive what comes next is a break. The Eagles end their season on a high note and now enter a time of rest and soon a time of training as they face the possibility of NCAA Championship Qualification for the first time next year.