The season which began at the beginning of last fall is finally nearing its end for the Biola swim team. The team recently raced in the 2011 Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference Championships at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif. Biola’s team broke two school records and added four more national qualifying times.

“Everyone swam great, and I’m really encouraged now and excited going into nationals,” said junior Amber Kiel.

Biola swimmers improve times from first day

Individual races began Thursday Feb. 17 with the women’s 500-yard freestyle, swam by Kiel, junior Alison Seek, and freshman Tessa McFarland. Both Kiel and McFarland dropped time off their preliminary entries. McFarland in particular made a great improvement swimming the race in 5:55.53, dropping 11 seconds from her entry time.

In the 200-yard individual medley, senior April Smith swam a 2:11.10 and won 10th place overall. In the 50-yard freestyle, senior Emily Mosbacher swam an impressive 24.98 and won 10th place out of 95 swimmers.

On the men’s side, sophomore Mark Diaz dropped almost 10 seconds off of his time coming into the meet for the 200-yard individual medley. He swam the race in 2:13.57. Also, in the 50-yard freestyle, sophomore Chris Stutzman placed 16th overall with his time of 21.73.

Swimmers continue to place well on second day of meet

On Friday, in the women’s 400-yard individual medley, Smith dropped some more time off of her school record with a 4:38.16. She placed fifth overall. In the 100-yard butterfly, junior Brittney Rosania (1:00.38), Mosbacher (1:00.30), and junior Rachael Sirjord (1:02.40) placed 12th, 17th, and 19th respectively. In the 200-yard freestyle, freshman Monica Hurt returned for finals and swam a 2:03.05 –– placing 20th overall. Sophomore Bethany Turner did very well in the 100-yard breaststroke; she entered conference with a time of 1:14.48 and left with an improved time of 1:11.99. On the men’s team, Stutzman’s best time of the day for the 200-yard freestyle was a 1:46.67. He won 16th place overall.

More records set on last day

Saturday began with the 1650-yard freestyle (the mile), which was swam by Seek, whose final time was 18:52.97, along with Katie McNeely (19:59.94) and McFarland (20:00.85). In the 100-yard freestyle, Mosbacher won 16th place with a time of 55:15 out of the 98 girls who swam the event. Smith swam a 2:23.20 in the 200-yard breastroke, winning fifth place (this was two seconds faster than her time before conference). Rosania and senior Katie McLeland placed 16th and 20th for the 200 butterfly. In the men’s 100-yard freestyle, Stutzman won 10th with a 46:98.

The highlight of the day, however, was an impressive swim by Diaz in the 200-yard breaststroke. Diaz broke the school record that had been set in 2004 for this race. His time was a 2:19.78 –– nearly two seconds faster than the old school record.

Team heading to nationals

Those who made national cuts for the first time in some of their races include Hurt, who made the cut in her 100 freestyle with a 56.83; sophomore Bailey Johnson, who swam two qualifying times for the 200 IM (2:19.25) and the 200-yard freestyle (2:04.03); and Seek, who picked up the fourth qualifying time of the weekend in the 200-yard freestyle with a 2:04.17.

The team will be flying out to St. Peters, Mo. for nationals, which begins on March 3. Over the course of swim’s long season, the team has really bonded and become a family. They have shared meals, travel time, sickness, and of course swimming. “I love the team bonding. We are so close,” said freshman Sarah Oh. “We are a family. During Interterm, we were with each other 24-7, and I didn’t get tired of them.”