LA MIRADA, Calif. - A tired but resilient group of CUI Eagles competed in the Biola Invitational at on Saturday. Against some of the top programs in the conference, the Eagles battled and fought for every yard and came away with a hard-fought team win on the men's side and a second place finish of eight teams on the women's. 
 
The CUI men won six individual and two relay events on the day.  All-American Kyle Benjamin led the way with wins in the 200 breaststroke, the 1650 free and was a member of the victorious 4x100 free relay.  The freestyle dominant Eagles also saw Alberto Cortes (50 free, two relays), Austin Barton (100 free, two relays), and Taylor Steffen (500 free) reach the top of the podium.  Cortes and Tim Townsend (50 free) as well as the pair of Barton and Cortes (100 free) nabbed 1-2 finishes for the Eagles.  With those results, it was evident that the Eagles would put down a good showing in the meet ending 4x100 free relay and the foursome of Barton, Townsend, Benjamin and Cortes swam to an impressive 3:09 32 winning time.
 
Skyler Hojnacki had a solid meet winning the 100 breaststroke and as a member of the winning 4x100 medley relay with Caden Carver, Cortes and Barton.  Notable swims came from Armando Cadena (200IM 2nd, 2:00.6), Nick Walker (500 free, 8th) and Patrik Zsiros (4x100 free relay). Max Wickens posted personal best scores on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards in the diving competition.
 
For the women, their sole win came courtesy of Faith Silzel in the 200 back as she swam an impressively smart race to track down her opponent in the final 50 yards.  Despite no other wins on the day, the Eagles impressive depth mixed with some late-race competitiveness made for a successful outing.  Leading the way were Maddie Dodge (3rds, 100 breast, 100 free), Katelyn Thomas (2nd, 50 free), Emily Kivisto (5th, 100 breast), Mikayla Jean (5th, 200 butterfly), Roseryn Empremsilapa (6th, 500 free) and Kayla Newman (5th, 1-meter diving, 7th, 3-meter diving).  The 4x100 medley relay (Thomas, Kivisto, Sayah Faridnia, Dodge) and the 4x100 free relay (Dodge, Jamie Sedden, Faridnia, Thomas each earned third place finishes.  
 
"We have been training very hard the past few weeks since the semester ended," explained CUI head coach Bert Bergen. "The team has put in a lot of work in the pool and weightroom and we are confident the results will be there when we rest in February for conference.  It's rewarding to see the fight and determination along the way.  They earned this today but we are back to work Monday morning."
 
Kivisto also made an impact on the Concordia community last Friday when the senior from Dassel, Minn was the featured speaker at chapel time and shared how her time as a student-athlete at CUI has helped her grow in faith and as a person.
 
There is a time change and a location update for CUI's next meet which will serve as its Code Yellow meet and also involve Biola University. The next test will take place on Saturday, Jan. 25 at the Lansing Aquatic Center, which is the home pool of Biola in La Mirada, Calif. Divers will start at 10:30 a.m. with swimmers joining in later for a scheduled 1:45 p.m. start time in the pool.

For the full CUI swimming and diving schedule, click here.

To follow CUI swimming and diving on the squad's Instagram page and Twitter account. You can also get the latest updates on the CUI athletics main Instagram page and Twitter account: @cuieagles.