COMPLETE RESULTS
LA MIRADA, Calif. — Under a beautiful sunny Southern California sky, Biola Swim & Dive lifted the lid on its 2024-25 season on Friday evening. The Eagles played host to the Simon Fraser Red Leafs for day one of back-to-back dual meets against the opponents from Burnaby, British Columbia.
The two sides battled in a unique and entertaining unconventional meet format to begin the new year. The event featured 21 total events, 10 in each gender and then a final mixed gender 400-medley relay.
"I am super excited to get the season started with Simon Fraser," said Head Coach
Nate Harding. "For both the men and women the goal was to start the season with a competitive team and continue through a competitive competition schedule for the season. Our men and women did a great job to kick the season off with great energy and some fast swims."
The highlight of the day came early in the meet as Biola's female 800-yard freestyle relay team earned an exciting come-from-behind victory in a head-to-head matchup with the Simon Fraser 'A' team. After two legs of the relay, the SFU side had a lead spanning nearly the entire length of the pool. But, incredible swims from Chloe Colvard and Rachel Munch allowed the Eagles to flip the script and get a narrow win with a final time of 7:52.87
That relay win was one of six event wins for Biola on the women's side, helping lift the Eagles to a decisive 102-76 victory over the Red Leafs. Allison Yancey (3), Phoebe Munholland (2), Malia Ciolli (2) and Morgan Kampfer (2) led the way for Biola with a few event wins.
"We had six personal-best times swam today between the men and women," said Harding. "That is pretty unheard of for the beginning of the season. That's exciting for our progam."
On the men's side, the Red Leafs used a handful of top swimmers to pick up all the event victories and overcome Biola's with a final team score of 129-43. Marcus Mak was the standout male swimmer, winning all of his individual events for the Red Leafs.
The men's 200-medley relay was another highlight event on the day. It did not end in Biola's favor, but it was another thrilling race. The Eagles were narrowly out-touched by Dylan Kormendy and Simon Fraser by .01 seconds.
The men's 50-backstroke had a similar finish as the Eagles' Alejandro Marchesini did battle with SFU's Lukas Buck. Marchesini used a strong streamline to force the issue over the final 25 yards, but Buck out-touched him by .04 seconds to win the event with a :24.18.
Just after that race ended, we had another heart-pumping finish in the women's 50-breaststroke. This time, though, the finish gave Biola something to smile about. Standout freshman Malia Ciolli defeated Simon Fraser's swimmer of the meet, Delrae Vetter with a time of :32.00. Vetter was just behind her at :32.03.
In the exhibition mixed relay, which closed out the day, Simon Fraser structured their team to save the best for last and it paid off. The Red Leafs' anchor was Mak, who was pitted against Biola's Phoebe Munholland. Munholland did absolutely all she could over her 100 yards, but could not hang on as Mak erased a big deficit and helped his team close the day with a victory. The Red Leafs went 3:41.46 and Biola's 'A' team closed out at 3:42.55.
These two teams will tango again on Saturday, this time following a traditional 13-event format. The day begins with diving at 9 a.m. at Lansing Pool. Swimming will begin at 11 a.m. and should finish up by 1:30 p.m. or so.
"I'm looking forward to day two swims which is a little bit of a lot longer swims and more traditional meet format," said Harding. "I am super grateful and thankful to the Simon Fraser coach for bringing his student-athletes down to our home pool. I am excited to get things going for day two."
Follow the meet with a free live stream or at the free live results
hosted on SwimCloud.
