Senior Danny Ledesma and juinor Andrew Daedler hold strong among the tough competition during the first meet of the year on August 31 at Redlands. | Courtesy of Jessi Kung

The men’s cross-country team battled tough conditions at Saturday’s 8k UC Riverside cross-country meet. Biola came in 18th out of a total of 23 teams.

There were only five men representing Biola at the meet. The men raced against NCAA teams like UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego as well as teams in Biola’s own division such as Westmont College and Vanguard University.

Junior Kevin Horchler was Biola’s top finisher. Horchler finished the race with a time of 25:47.1 to come in 50th place out of 196 runners.

“We hope to represent well as we always do. We have much to learn and to work on. We hope to also represent in a manner that is truly professional and with outstanding sportsmanship,” head coach Jonathan Zimmerman said in an email.

Fellow junior Andrew Daedler was not far behind Horchler in time, coming in at 26:00.3. Daedler’s time put him at 66th.

The other runners that represented Biola were freshman Brandon Berz, who came in 91st with a time of 26:24.5. Sophomore Shane Brinson’s time of 27:18.1 put him at 148th. Senior Danny Ledesma was the last one to cross the finish line for Biola with a time of 28:25.7.

After facing the challenges of extreme heat and tough competition, the Eagles are taking the race as a learning experience to prepare them for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Pre-National meet on Oct. 12.

“I think it is great preparation for us because there are a lot of strong teams that will show up at the Pre-National meet in October,” Horchler said. “It’s great prep because there will be strong teams at GSAC that will be ready to race hard, so it’s great training to be forced to race hard against good competitors.”

The men are on a break until the NAIA Pre-National meet. The women will compete this Saturday in the San Diego Aztec Invitational.