Biola’s cross country teams competed in the NAIA West Coast Jamboree on Oct. 25 with the men taking ninth place out of 13 teams and the women snagging the fourth place spot out of 14.

The men have endured a rough season. They have finished in the bottom half of the standings each meet despite great individual performances. However, the men have improved overall as the season progresses, with three runners beating their season best times in the previous race.

Senior Kevin Horchler finished second for the men out of a field of 105 runners. The rest of the men placed between 47th and 65th. Cal State San Marcos took the men’s top spot as a team. San Marcos freshman Andrew Tallamas finished in first place by eight seconds.

“We raced our scoring five men and actually had [our] best race of the season and closed [the] gap to teams in our conference that used to be much farther ahead of us.” said coach Jonathan Zimmerman.

The women’s fourth place performance marks their lowest finish this season. They placed first twice and second once. Senior Carrie Soholt lead the way with a 12th place finish out of 140 women. The rest of the team landed between 16th and 83rd. San Marcos again took first place with three runners in the top 10 — the fastest runner earning second place.

On Nov. 8 the Eagles will compete in the GSAC championship. The women are the defending champions two years running and hope to make it three while the men strive to pull off an upset. Carrie Soholt has confidence in her teammates.

“The Biola women's team has always carried on a great legacy because the focus of this team is being a team rather than just being on a team,” Soholt said, “and nothing has changed this year in comparison to the previous years.”