Biola’s cross country team competed well in the UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday. The invitational consisted of top NCAA Division I and Division II programs from across Southern California. 

WOMEN FINISH 10th

The women’s team captured 10th place in the invite, landing Biola in the top third out of thirty teams on the 6K track. Eight runners competed for the women, led by sophomore Lynette Ruiz with a personal best time of 21:12.15 to place 39th individually. Following Ruiz, freshman Bethany Mapes and redshirt senior Grace Catena captured 54th and 55th individually. Freshman duo Ellie Stetina and Lauren Lendrith continued the Eagles’ trend of finishing alongside teammates by placing 76th and 77th. 

MEN LEAD MOST DIVISION II TEAMS 

All eight Eagles runners finished in the top 150 out of 200 athletes with six of those runners placing in the top 100. 

The men’s runners placed 17th out of 31 teams in an 8k race, where transfer Benjamin White’s impressive time of of 24:12.5 landed him 18th individually. Redshirt sophomore Jerry Baltzer captured 90th crossing the finish line in under 25 minutes as well with a personal best of 24:59.4. All men’s runners maintained a consistent pace, which helped Biola to lead most DII programs competing in the invitational. 

BU cross country continues their season on Oct. 8 at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational.