The Cal State East Bay women’s swimming team opened the 2014 season with a bang at home on Friday.

The Pioneers dominated Mills College at Pioneer Pool doubling the Cyclones’ points total and securing their first victory of the season by a final of 156-78.

“We had a hard week of practice before this,” junior Hannah Cutts said.

“We should be sore but it is just the beginning of the season.”

Cutts contributed to the point total by placing first in the 500 and 1000-yard freestyle events. Fellow Pioneer Sierra MacIntyre also had a great home opener for CSUEB nabbing three first place finishes of her own.

MacIntyre placed first in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle as well as the 100-yard butterfly event. MacIntyre had some tough competition from her Pioneer teammate, sophomore Madison Hauanio, who finished second in the 50-yard freestyle event just one hundredth of a second behind MacIntyre.

Hauanio celebrated her nineteenth birthday in style capturing a first place finish in the 100-yard backstroke event and also had the second best time in the 500-yard freestyle finishing with a time of 5:14.88.

“For us, this meet is a chance to get a bead on where we are at, early-season,” coach Ben Loorz said. “Also, it is an important opportunity for us to see our newcomer’s race, and begin to get a better idea of how they will fit into our program.”

Sophomore Mariam Lowe won two individual events and she also swam the first leg of the 200-yard medley relay.

Lowe placed first in the 200-yard butterfly as well as the 200-yard backstroke events in the opening meet of the season.

Claire Beaty, Courtney Schwiesow and Rachel Shimizu all recorded first place finishes in the 200-yard breaststroke, 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard freestyle events respectively.

Beaty is a freshman and a Navato native who scored her first victory as a Pioneer finishing with a time of 2:29.41 in the 200-yard breaststroke.

“Mariam Lowe is one of our stand-out sophomores,” Loorz said. “Both the coaching staff, and Mariam herself, have high performance expectations this year.”

CSUEB is looking to build off of their trip to the NCAA Division II Championships last year where they finished in fifteenth place with a total 101 team points.

Next up for the Pioneers at 10 a.m. on Saturday is the Bay Area Invitational in Oakland at Mills College.

In addition to the Cyclones and CSUEB the event will also host UC Santa Cruz, College of Idaho, Chapman University and Biola University.

The Pioneers will have to be a strong road team this season with just two home meets remaining in the 2014-2015 season the next of which isn’t until Jan. 17 when Azusa Pacific makes the pilgrimage to Pioneer Pool.