LA VERNE, Calif. --- The three-day event of the La Verne Winter Invite saw its start on Friday. 21 total teams between men and women came to the pool for 10 events on day one.

Biola pushed its way towards the middle of the pack on both sides on Friday. The teams stayed well within reach of the leaders with plenty of action left in the weekend.

The lead swimmer in the 200yd IM preliminary was Biola's Liza Parahnevich at 2:05.80. She took third in the finals, after holding the lead through the first three legs but came up .5 seconds short. Colette Friedley logged a finals time of 2:09.18 for fourth and No. 8 Anna Haaksma nabbed seventh at 2:11.63.

Jacob Haaksma came in with a top-eight score on the men's side in the 200yd IM. Haaksma finished sixth in the finals with a time of 1:55.18. The eighth place finisher was Sean Rho at 1:58.02.

A finalist scored for the Eagles in the men's and women's 50yd freestyle. Kolya Vos recorded a time of 24.03 to take seventh and Noah Taylor grabbed sixth at 21.42.

Through the first day of competition Biola ranked fourth on both sides of the table. The women's team totaled 322.5 points through five events. The men came in a smidge higher at 333 points through the same number of events.

Saturday action is set to begin at 10:00am.