Men’s and women’s cross country both claim NCCAA championships

Gabe Plendcio and Makenna Mason lead the Eagles to team titles.

Joel Ashor, Sports Editor • November 10, 2018

Biola’s women’s cross country team gets ready at the starting line in the NCCAA national championships on November 10, 2018.

Photo courtesy of Courtesy of Biola Athletics/Twitter

On a beautiful morning in Point Lookout, Missouri on Saturday, men’s and women’s cross country added two more NCCAA championship banners. The men won their second consecutive title, and the women took home their first championship in program history. Junior Gabe Plendcio also took home his second straight individual title, and sophomore Makenna Mason placed third to lead the women’s team.

TITLE DEFENSE

Plendcio defended his title in the 8k event, running a time of 25:35 to claim the individual championship by nearly 30 seconds. Not too far behind him in fourth was sophomore Ryan St. Pierre, who finished in a time of 26:22. Freshman Jared Donnel had a fantastic showing, coming in fifth place just three seconds behind St. Pierre at 26:25.

Coming in seventh was sophomore Giovanni Orellana with a time of 26:36, and freshman Brady DeHaven followed just behind in eighth with a 26:37. Sophomore Christian Perez notched a 13th place finish with a 26:52, and junior Nic Nelson rounded out the Eagles’ runners in 16th place with a time of 27:08.

FIRST TITLE

Sophomore Makenna Mason paced the Eagles’ women’s team, running a time of 18:55 in the 5k event to finish third overall. Freshman Clara Haynes continued her stellar season with a fifth place finish time of 19:19, while senior Emily Ransom came right on her heels in sixth with a 19:31.

Junior Amanda Reyes notched a seventh place finish with 19:37, followed by junior Micaela Pullman in eighth with a 19:40. Rounding out the women’s runners in 10th and 11th place were junior Kaili Waller and sophomore Kaitlin Natividad who ran a 19:43 and 19:45, respectively.

FINISHING STRONG

The men claimed the title with 25 points, and the women took home the championship with 29 points.

Both teams will be adding two more banners to the rafters of Chase Gymnasium in the near future.

0 0 votes

Article Rating

About the Contributor

Joel Ashor, Sports Editor

Joel Ashor is a junior broadcast journalism major with a love for sports, friends, and history. Joel is a Notre Dame football, Angels baseball, and Boston Celtics fan. [email protected] Growing up in the small city of Santa Maria, California as the youngest of four boys, I was always surrounded by things much earlier than normal, due to the fact that I experienced things through my much older brothers. One of the things I experienced was sports, and when I started watching and seeing what it looked like to be on a sports team, I fell in love. In my family, sports is not really an option, it just is something that we all do. Luckily my parents never had to force me or my brothers to play sports because we all had a passion for it. From a young age I immersed myself in the culture of sports, watching any sport that was on, growing a particular liking to college football. My uncle attended the University of Notre Dame, and my whole family are die-hard Irish fans. Naturally I became one as well, and I remember Saturday mornings with the family quite clearly. As I grew older I began to see and understand more about what it took to broadcast a live sports game, and I became quite intrigued by it. I decided I wanted to be involved with sports for the rest of my life and cover it in some form. One of the sports commentators I look up to greatly and have always liked is NBC sports reporter Bob Costas, who is a jack of all trades broadcaster and covers all sports from the Olympics to football and many more. I aspire to be a broadcast journalist someday, and the Chimes is an excellent way to hone my skills and continue to practice writing and talking about sports. I look forward to my growth while working with the Chimes in reporting accurately and quickly, and cannot wait to cover Biola sports.

The Chimes

The Chimes

The Chimes

Men’s and women’s cross country both claim NCCAA championships

TITLE DEFENSE

FIRST TITLE

FINISHING STRONG

The Chimes

Comments (0)