Three Biola University women athletes kicked off Women’s History Month during the first week of March by making some history of their own.

Jessilyn Conicelli opened the week by becoming the first Biola women's basketball player ever to earn Player of the Year honors from the Golden State Athletic Conference. The senior forward finished the season as the conference-leader in both scoring and rebounding and was the lone player in the conference to average a double-double — a feat she has accomplished in three-straight seasons.

Conicelli — whose coach, Ken Crawford, was named GSAC Women's Basketball Coach of the Year — was featured in the Whittier Daily News for her great season. Find more coverage at Biola’s athletics website.

Later in the same week, senior Natasha Miller broke her own National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics record and won a third-straight pentathlon title at the indoor track and field championships. She won four of the five events and established a new record score of 4,023 in the first day of action at the GaREAT Sports Complex in Geneva, Ohio. It was her fifth individual indoor title, making her one of just 10 women athletes to achieve that feat.

More information about Miller’s accomplishments and full coverage of the NAIA indoor track championships can be found here and at Biola’s athletics homepage: http://athletics.biola.edu.

In swimming, senior April Smith earned her second NAIA individual title in as many years by winning the 400 Individual Medley in a school record time of 4:30.23 at the 2011 NAIA Swimming and Diving Championships held at St. Peter's Rec-Plex. Smith, who won Biola's first swimming championship last season by winning the 200 breaststroke, added another win, dropping six seconds off her preliminary time to win by two seconds. In the morning she lowered her school-record time down to 4:36.70, seeding her fifth in the finals. She ended up dropping another six seconds to finish with a 4:30.23 and easily won the event. The victory helped move the women into seventh place overall after the third day of the four-day competition with 141 points.

Jenna Bartlo, Media Relations Coordinator, can be reached at (562) 777-4061 or through e-mail at jenna.l.bartlo@biola.edu.