Men and women’s cross country traveled to Kahuku, Hawaii on Oct. 23 to compete in the PacWest Conference finale. Both teams finished strong with women finishing second and men coming in third. 

SECOND PLACE SUCCESS

The women came together in a tremendous team effort to earn second place. 

The team had seven runners place in the Top 16, ending with a score of 43 points. Freshman Lynetter Ruiz led the Eagles, placing second as an individual with a time of 22:19.2. 

Graduate Daisy Romero was the second Eagle to cross the finish line in eighth place at 23:10.3 with graduate Mackenna Mason following in ninth place with a time of 23:15.6.

The men’s team also earned a Top 3 spot coming in third place behind Fresno Pacific University and Azusa Pacific University. The men had a combined time of 2:09.45, earning them 60 total points.

LANDING TOP 3

Leading the men, redshirt sophomore Ronald Kigen earned seventh place with a time of 25:24.3. Following his lead, three Eagles—redshirt freshman Jerry Balzter, redshirt junior Brady DeHaven and sophomore Ryan Sorenson—finished 10th, 11th and 12th. The three athletes finished within seconds of each other with Balzter leading them at 25:56.1, DeHaven at 25.57.6 and Sorenson finishing at 26.01.7.

With the end of the regular season, men’s and women’s cross country will travel to Monmouth, Oregon for the NCAA West Region Championship on Nov. 6. Stats for today’s race are located on the Biola Athletics website.