St. George, Utah — Biola made a strong impression during the "get it going" day at the 2022 Pacific Collegiate Swimming & Diving Conference Championships on Wednesday. The men's team set the table for another big battle with Concordia University Irvine, while the women's team put up a few strong relay performances and great dives to get off to a strong start.

The divers began the day with some preliminary dives and finals competition right off the bat in the women's 3-meter and men's 1-meter dive. The Eagles got a pair of top-3 finals finishes on the men's side as Luke Bartruff finished second and Luke Hanson finished third. Eliana Cote paced the effort for BU on the women's side with a sixth-place finish in a competitive women's final. She moved up one spot from her entry seed.

In the swims, it was primarily relays during this opening day with the 200-medley relay and 800-freestyle relay taking the attention. The lone individual swim event was the 1,000-freestyle, which turned out to be a solid one for Coach Nathan Harding's Eagles.

Gabe Weber landed on the podium in the men's 1,000-freestyle. He went 9:42.23 to finish third overall. He beat the top CUI swimmer by three seconds. The Eagles had three men inside the top-10 in the 1,000-free as Weber was joined by Gavin Souttere (9th - 10:03.16) and Michael Maurer (10th - 10:09.97).

On the women's side, Audrey Vermeulen led the way in the 1,000-free with a 7th-place effort on an 10:49.72, which was not too far off her personal-best.

Keeping with the freestyle theme of success, Biola thrived in the 800-freestyle relay to end opening day. The men's 'A' team took a strong second-place with a 6:50.51. Tanner Smith, Patrick Waggoner, Westin Dawe and Jacob Haaksma were the group to get the job done in that event, once again battling stroke-for-stroke with CUI.

On the women's side Kolya Vos, Sofia Chavez-Varela, Kasidee Pascoe and Liza Parahnevich combined for a 7:44.77 to finish fifth overall in the 800-free relay.

The men again found their way onto the podium in the 200-medley relay, making it a perfect 4-for-4 in events with finals on Wednesday. The group of Ryan Monrean, James Gamette, Dylan Pon and Jake Michelsen went 1:34.15 to finish third overall about a full second ahead of the fourth-place Arizona Christian contingent.

The women's team replicated its other relay finish with a fifth-place mark in the 200-medley relay. This time it was Kalyn Chang, Grace Kling, Morgan Kampfer and Kasidee Pascoe who led the Eagles to a 1:47.81 mark to finish between Concordia and NCAA Division I Loyola Marymount.

That was it for an exciting first day from the Human Performance Center at Dixie State University. Thursday will be a full slate with prelims in the morning and finals at night. 

Follow results live via the Meet Mobile App. Watch the meet via the PCSC YouTube. Follow @BiolaAquatics on Instagram for updates throughout the meet. 

Thursday Schedule (all times MST)
 

Thursday, Feb. 17
7:30 a.m.	Warm-up for Swimming
9:30 a.m.	500 Free (Women's & Men's) Kellynn Hayes, Ashlynn Griffin, Anna Cohee, Morgan Kampfer, Sofia Chavez-Varela, Audrey Vermeulen Gabe Weber, Colin Snyder, Noah Benson, Westin Dawe
	200 IM (Women's & Men's) Celine Dong, Jaclynn Mudd, Grace Kling, Katelyn Harper, Anna Haaksma, Liza Parahnevich Jackson Black, Nathan Schwantes, Ryan Monrean, Patrick Waggoner, Jacob Haaksma, Clayton Owens
	50 Free (Women's & Men's) Kalyn Chang, Kolya Vos, Katie Ottman, Kasidee Pascoe Matthew Trejo, James Gamette, Tanner Smith, Ethan Crabb, Jake Michelsen, Alex Ness
	Relay Warm Up
	200 Free Relay (Women's & Men's)
11:30 a.m.	Diving Warm Up
12:00 p.m.	Women's 1-Meter & Men's 3-Meter Diving; 6 Dives for Prelims
1:30 p.m.	Warm-up for Diving Finals
	Women's 1-Meter & Men's 3-Meter Dive Finals (Awards to follow 500 Free)
5:00 p.m.	500 Free (Women's 3 Heats & Men's 2 Heats) (Awards to follow)
	200 IM (Women's 3 Heats & Men's 2 Heats) (Awards to follow)
	50 Free (Women's 3 Heats & Men's 2 Heats) (Awards to follow)
	Relay Warm-Up
6:04 p.m.	200 Free Relay - A&B only (Women's & Men's) (Awards to follow)
6:30 p.m.	Time Trials