LOS ANGELES — Biola Men's Swim & Dive extended its lead at the 2023 Pacific Collegiate Swim & Dive Conference Championships with another strong day of swims on Friday, the penultimate day of competition.

Head Coach Nathan Harding's bunch increased its meet total to 601.5 total points, to sit at a narrow 30-point lead over the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs headed into what is certain to be a thrilling final day Saturday.

The women's contingent remains in third place after the third day of competition as NCAA Division I side Pepperdine is running away with things at 1,186 total points accumulated. The Eagles head into the last day of swims 63.5 points back from rivals Azusa Pacific and 36.5 points up on the fourth-place CSU East Bay Pioneers.

Alejandro Marchesini stole the show with an individual championship swim in the 100-backstroke. The first-year Eagle set a new school record with a :50.72. It was a great event overall for the BU men as Nathan Griffin (3rd) and Alex Ness (6th) also swam in the top final.

The 100-butterfly was another similar event that was chock full of Eagles. The men's team had four swimmers in the top final heat, while the women's team also managed two in the finals.

Noah Taylor shot out of a rocket in the 100-butterfly to finish second overall. His :49.61 narrowly missed eclipsing the current school record for the event. That school record is helf by Matthew Trejo, who just happened to finish fifth in tonight's race with a :50.95.

On the women's side Phoebe Munholland had a crack at the A-final, where she placed eighth. Meanwhile, Morgan Kampfer got to try the sweet taste of success by winning the consolation final.

The highest points-earning effort for the Biola women came in the grueling 400-IM. Coco Friedley and Liza Parahnevich combined to bring in 49 points for the Eagles by finishing fifth and sixth overall. Friedley led the effort with a final time of 4:33.27.

For the men, the 400-IM was relatively quiet compared to some of the others. Michael Maurer held it down for the guys and finished eighth. 

Similar to the last go-around it was the Haaksma show for Biola in the 100-breaststroke event. Jacob Haaksma was the big winner for the men, finishing third while setting a school record. His older sister Anna was the women's top finisher with a 7th-place mark (1:07.11)) that brought in 23 points for the team.

The 200-freestyle was another depth-adding event for Biola Athletics, as Harding's squad saw scoring from Tanner Smith (3rd), Alex Ness (4th) and even Ethan Crabb and Caleb Hernandez who tied for 13th.

Kolya Vos led the women with a 15th-place effort which saw her improve upon her seed tim with a 1:55.58 finish. She looks ahead to what could be her final day of collegiate competition tomorrow.

Despite it being a busy individual day, the PCSC closed out Friday's session with a team building relay event. Biola's men placed second in the 400-medley relay, and the group of Marchesini, Haaksma, Trejo and Noah Taylor combined to break the school record by two+ seconds. They were second with a time of 3:22.37. 

The women's 'A' relay also found the podium with a third-place mark.

Saturday is the final day of competition at East Los Angeles College. Prelims begin at 9:15 a.m. Then there is a special senior recognition ceremony at 3:45 p.m. prior to the final session of the meet at 4:45 p.m.

Live results are available via the meet mobile app. The finals will be live streamed at this link. The prelims will be live streamed at this link.