The Biola cross country team competed in the last major meet of the year before the Golden State Athletic Conference Championships when they ran in the Bronco Invitational on Oct. 17. Many NCAA division one schools competed in the invite, but of the non-division one schools the men placed third of five teams and the women took first of three teams.
WORKING AS A TEAM
Senior Kellian Hunt placed third out of all 172 female athletes, including 18 division one schools. Hunt finished the 6k with a time of 19:57.9 for an average mile time of 5:22.
The second finish for the Eagles was senior Anika Gasner who finished 32nd in the 6k with a time of 21:17.8. Gasner was followed by junior Lyndee Dawson who finished the race in 21:37.8, earning her 50th place.
“I felt like we did really good,” Dawson said. “We really tried to work together as a team, which is kind of harder in cross country because the gun goes off and you all kind of do your own thing. But for the first two, two and a half miles there is a pack of like five of us that really stuck together and worked off of each other.”
BEST OF THE SEASON
Biola finished first out of the other three non-division one teams which included Carroll College and California State University-Monterey Bay.
The men’s team finished in fifth place out of the six competing non-division one teams, beating out the only other GSAC team, Vanguard University. Despite the low placing, the team feels confident they positioned themselves to compete well in the GSAC Championships on Nov. 7.
“This meet was probably our best of the season so far on the guy’s side because in the past we really struggled connecting as a team,” said Ryan Thompson, freshman. “We had some good individual performances, but we haven’t been able to connect with each other mid race, which is pretty important to work together.”
A CRUCIAL FEW WEEKS
Senior Kevin Horchler led the Eagles with his 14th place finish out of the 155 competing athletes. Horchler completed the 8k race in 24:17.8, resulting in an average mile time of 4:54. The second Eagle was Thompson in 96th place, followed by freshman Christian Perez Basulto in 109th.
Both teams are now focusing on the GSAC Championships. A victory in the conference tournament would result in a ticket to the NAIA National Tournament in Charlotte, N.C.
“These next couple of weeks are pretty crucial for us as we get close to the end of the season — making sure we’re healthy,” Thompson said. “We’re not going to be training super hard because we’ve been training pretty hard earlier in the season so we’ll probably kind of start backing off a little bit in our training and weekly milage.”
