LA MIRADA, Calif., -- The No. 25 ranked Cal State East Bay Swim team kicked off their first meet of 2020 by placing first at the Biola Invitational Saturday afternoon at Splash Aquatic Center.
 
The Pioneers scored 1139.5 points collectively, nearly 30 more than conference rival Concordia in second place.
 
The team set the tone from the outset of the morning meet with a victory in the first event. The quartet of Alondra Ortiz, Tori Padilla, Victoria Zukeran, and Allie Klinger beat Biola by one second in the 400 Medley Relay. Impressively, the "B" relay team of Katrionna Furness, Rebecca Bay, Abigail Mitchell, and Serene Augustain took seventh.
 
That was followed by the 1650, which Peyton Wayment -- school record holder in the event – took first in the event. She was more than nine seconds better than the second place finisher with a time of 18:00.00. Landry Walker was the second place finisher, scoring points for the Pioneers with a time of 18:09.10, and Leah Robinson scored as well with a seventh place performance.
 
East Bay expanded its points lead as Serene Augustain earned the CSUEB third event victory of the day with win in the 200 Free with a time of 1:57.61. Morgan Frank, Isabel Rishwain and Kelee Shimizu followed with fourth, fifth and sixth place finishes. Peyton Wayment tallied a ninth place finish.
 
Biola picked up its first win in the next event as Lisa Parahnevich out-touched Alondra Ortiz in 100 Back by just one second, but East Bay still extended its point lead. Lauren Ostrander and Katrionna Furness placed back-to-back in fourth and fifth place.
 
The Pioneers widened the gap on their lead as Rebecca Bay secured second place points in the 100 Breast and Tori Padilla scored points as well with a sixth place finish.
 
Victoria Zukeran earned the next event victory of the day for the Pioneers taking first in the 200 Fly with a time of 2:09.86. Sofia Moufarrej compiled a fourth place finish with a time of 2:13.61 and Kelee Shimizu took sixth place in 2:16.82.
 
The Pioneers had a solid lead in the team standings at this point in the meet, but they nonetheless hogged nearly all the points in the next race. Allie Klinger out-sprinted the field in the 50 Free with a time of 24.99. She was the first of three CSUEB athletes in the top five, as Isabel Rishwain took fourth and Katrionna Furness touched the wall fifth.
 
That was followed by an extremely tight finish between four swimmers in the 200 Back. The Pioneers didn't pull out the win, but continued their strong team performance with a third place finish by Alondra Ortiz and a fifth place effort by Katrionna Furness.
 
Rebecca Bay was outstanding in the 200 Breast with a thrid place finish in 2:32.66, while Landry Walker took fourth.
The 500 Free followed that, and the Pioneers were extremely impressive collectively. After Lisa Parahnevich and Kolya Vos of Biola placed first and second, CSUEB had four of the next five finishers. Serene Augustain led the way in third place with a time of 5:14.90, followed by Peyton Wayment, and Morgan Frank in fourth and fifth, with Leah Robinson taking seventh.
 
The Pioneers remained dominant in the next race which would be the final event for CSUEB. Victoria Zukeran placed first in the 100 Fly with a time of 58:71 and Allie Klinger notched a fifth place finish in 1:00.85.
 
East Bay will have a full slate of meets next week as they travel to San Jose for the dual meet against San Jose State before their Senior Day meet against Fresno Pacific.