Results (PDF)

LA MIRADA, Calif. -- With nine victories in 14 events, the No. 21 ranked Cal State East Bay swim team cruised to first-place on Saturday morning at the Biola Invitational, held at the Splash! Regional Aquatic Center.

The Pioneers tallied 907 points at the five team meet, easily out-pacing conference rivals Concordia-Irvine (596.5), Azusa Pacific (568.5), Biola (375), and Soka (144) at the same venue that will host next month's Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference (PCSC) championships.

East Bay started the day with a victory in the 200 Medley Relay, as the foursome of Morgan McClure, Claire Beaty, Allie Klinger, and Vivy Hua recorded a time of 1:49.60. CSUEB's "B" team of Kali Kearns, Yingfei Zhang, Victoria Zukeran, and Shelby Parker finished in 1:52.76 and beat every other school except second-place Biola. 

The first individual event was also the longest, with freshman Payton Wayment leading the way with a second place finish in the 1000 Freestyle in 1:01.33. She was followed by Ryleigh Weight in third and Jande Monteon in fourth.

A pair of Pioneers finished atop the 200 Freestyle, as Hua captured the victory with a time of 1:57.15, out-touching freshman Serene Augustain, who took second place in 1:57.53.

The squad out-did itself in the next event, the 100 Backstroke, boasting the top three finishers. McClure was two seconds ahead of the rest of the field in first place (59.05), followed by freshman Tatum Roepke in second place (1:01.18) and Kearns in third (1:01.80).

Emily Silzel of Biola out-touched Claire Beaty by less than two-tenths of a second in the 100 Breaststroke, as the Pioneers senior finished runner-up in 1:08.31. McClure took fourth in that event in 1:08.46, followed by Zhang in 1:10.77. 

Senior Madison Faulkner followed that with an impressive victory in the 200 Butterfly. Her time of 2:13.24 beat the second place finishers by nearly two seconds. Zukeran scored third place points for the Pioneers in that race in 2:15.51.

Klinger made it two straight East Bay wins by narrowly beating the field in the 50 Freestyle sprint. She touched the wall in 25.49 to win by just 0.05 seconds. Parker was CSUEB's second-fastest swimmer, finishing dead even with APU's Emily Rigsby for third place in 25.74.

Hua was out-touched in the next event, the 100 Freestyle, by four-tenths of a second. The junior settled for second place with a time of 53.63. Klinger was East Bay's second finisher, scoring sixth place points in 56.50. 

Miranda McDonnell got the Pioneers back in the win column with a dominant effort in the 200 Backstroke. Her time of 2:12.22 out-paced the field by more than three seconds, and her closest competition was Kearns in second place in 2:15.90.

Following her narrow second place finish earlier, Beaty made sure nobody beat her to the wall in the 200 Breaststroke. She won by nearly five seconds, cruising to first place in 2:26.80. Rita Gomez took third place in that event in 2:31.36, missing second place by the smallest possible margin, one hundredth of a second.

Augustain made it three straight Pioneer victories with a two-second win in the 500 Freestyle. East Bay scored significant team points in the event, as Wayment finished fourth, Maddie Hulse placed fifth, Weight took sixth, and Parker finished seventh.

It was more of the same in the 100 Butterfly, with CSUEB swimmers occupying four of the top five finishing positions. McClure led the way, but was unable to catch Biola's Lisa Tixier, who beat her by 0.09 seconds. McClure was runner-up in 58.34, followed by Hua in 59.72, Zhang in 1:00.44, and Roepke in 1:00.62.

McClure didn't compete in the final individual race, the 200 IM, one of four events in which she holds the school record. But the Pioneers were well represented nonetheless, as Augustain picked up yet another victory with a time of 2:14.91. She narrowly beat Zukeran, who placed second in 2:15.41.

East Bay closed out the day with a comfortable win in the 400 Freestyle Relay. All-Americans Hua, McClure, and Parker were anchored by Klinger and touched the wall in 3:37.78, nearly two seconds ahead of Biola.

The Pioneers return to action next Saturday back in Hayward and will celebrate Senior Day prior to their final home meet of the season against conference rival and No. 11 ranked Fresno Pacific.