LA MIRADA, Calif. - The CUI men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened their 2019-2020 competition seasons at the PCSC Relay Meet and Pentathlon Series at the La Mirada Aquatic Center this past Friday and Saturday.  A little short-handed and battling some ailments, the Eagles rose up to post some solid results over the course of the weekend. 
 
The men opened the meet Friday with a come-from-behind win in the 3x100 butterfly relay as the trio of Maverick Donohue, Joey Fitzsimmons and Skyler Hojnacki tracked down the squads from Fresno Pacific and Biola to take the victory.  The CUI distance relay teams of Kobe Gall, Kyle Benjamin, Taylor Steffen and Caden Carver (4x200 free relay) and Gall, Benjamin and Steffen (3x500 free relay) were also victorious.  The Eagles were second in two other relays and third on another as they finished in third place, which was only four points behind the victorious Sunbirds. 
 
The CUI women were powered to a fifth place finish on three third place efforts in the 4x100 free relay (Sayeh Faridnia, Marley Hickson, Halli Bacon, Maddie Dodge), the 4x200 free relay (Faridnia, Dodge, Jamie Sedden, and Roseryn Empremsilapa) and the 4x100 Individual Medley Relay (Dodge, Katelyn Thomas, Faith Silzel and Mikayla Jean).  
 
On Saturday, all swimmers came back to compete in one of three five-event Pentathlons.  In a tremendous show of resilience and a testament to how hard they are training, the Eagles earned 21 top ten finishes in the meet with Thomas (sprint IM) and Kyle Benjamin (freestyle) winning their respective races. 
 
Individually, Faridnia also tested her mettle with an impressive win in the women's 100 butterfly with a time of 58.74 seconds. Sophomore Tim Townsend touched the wall first in the men's 25 yard freestyle and Carver emerged victorious in the 100 yard backstroke, while Hojnacki finished less than a second behind Carver as runner-up. In addition, in the men's 100 butterfly Albe Cortes and Hojnacki placed second and third, respectively.
 
Ultimately, the CUI men swam to a second place finish (260 points), which was only seven points behind FPU and more than 100 ahead of third place Biola.  This was due in part to six different Eagles earning top ten scoring spots in the freestyle meet.  The CUI women also improved on their Friday efforts and pushed through to close the weekend with a fourth place finish.
 
The Eagles will now turn their attention to training for their Alumni Meet, which is slated for a 1 p.m. start at Northwood High School on Saturday, Oct. 12.
 
For the full CUI swimming and diving schedule, click here.