POMONA, Calif. --- Biola men's and women's swim and dive squads kicked off the 2023 with a pair of dual meets on Wednesday. Pomona-Pitzer played host to the competition as the Eagles fell to the Sagehens and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The three teams took to the pool together but split the scores for dual competitions. On the day, the Biola men compiled 138 points and the women scored 155. Both teams lost their matchups against Pomona-Pitzer and MIT with the opponents each scoring over 200 points.

Mirsha Lora gave the Eagles a spark in the early going, taking third in the first individual event of the day. The long distance specialist hit the podium in the 1,000 yd freestyle, logging a time of 11:01.25. Lora grabbed bronze once again in the 500 yd free later in the day with a mark of 5:22.83.

The BU men scored in the backstroke with strong performances from Caden Drefs and Nathan Griffin. Drefs took fourth place in the 100 yd and 200 yd events, while Griffin landed in third in the 200 yd race.

Another pair of Eagles went back-to-back with their finishing placements in the 50 yd freestyle. Kolya Vos and Phoebe Munholland finished in fourth and fifth place with times of 25.20 and 25.26.

Caleb Pook was one of BU's top scorers, thriving in the diving section of the meet. The freshman got going with the 3mtr dive, scoring 246.85 for second place. Pook took home another silver placement in the 1mtr dive with a score of 295.80.

On the women's side, Liza Parahnevich also reached the podium in two events. The well-rounded swimmer nabbed second place in the 200 yd backstroke at 2:09.69, before claiming third in the 200 yd individual medley at 2:10.55.

Sean Rho added a bronze showing for BU in the 200 yd butterfly. Rho posted a mark of 1:57.09 for the podium finish in the 12th event of the afternoon.

Biola will return to Lansing Pool for its next contest, as the teams celebrate Senior Day on Friday, January 13.