Biola cross country started off their season with a bang at the Biola Invitational with the Women’s team coming in first and the Men’s team finishing at the top NCAA Division II team. Now in his 10th year coaching, Coach Sean Henning enters his first fall season as Director of Cross Country and Track & Field.
SETTING THE PACE
The women’s team landed in first with a total of 43 points ending with a team time of 1:13:35. Leading the charge was senior allied health major Bethany Mapes, who came in second in her race with a time of 17:53:8. Following Mapes was a tight group including MBA graduate student Madison Ebright (7th), junior Kinesiology major Hailey Wurbach (8th), sophomore Biological Science major Jaina Kang (10th) and freshman CMA major Elizabeth Kurtz (17th). The team’s strong performance has established momentum, setting the pace and showing that the rest of the season could be just as promising.
Ebright said, “I think this was a great start for the team. It’s still early so a lot can happen, which is exciting, so we will have to just keep training hard and with joy and look forward to the next race!”
Although the team lost athletes coming into this season, the players have not lost any focus, maintaining a positive team atmosphere.
DELIVERING STRONG FINISHES
On the men’s side, the team proved their strength by finishing as the top NCAA Division II program. The Biola Invitational brought tough competition, featuring Division I opponents Grand Canyon University and Pepperdine University. They finished fourth overall with 109 points and ended with a team time of 2:05:39. Junior psychology major Melt Von Molendorff I helped Biola secure 12th place overall with a time of 24:45:1.
Molendorff explained, “Yesterday at the Biola invite, it was not the best performance of my career. It was a pretty bad day at the office for me with full honesty; it just did not click for me yesterday. However, it was the first race of the season and I am excited to see what the season holds.”
Coming in after him were freshman kinesiology major Grant Miller (18th), freshman psychology major Issac Hampson (27th), and junior nursing major Jeremiah Echeverria (29th).
There are seven new freshmen on the team who made their collegiate debut at the Biola Invitational, meaning the men’s team is adjusting to a relatively new squad. Out of the seven members from last year’s nationals team only one has returned.
GROWTH AND GOALS
Coach Henning holds a positive outlook, aiming to inspire his players to be the best that they can be in all aspects of their lives and be the best version of themselves. Winning is certainly nice but his goal is to focus on helping his teams grow and excel beyond the championships they’ve collected over the past few years.
“Our big goal is to be the best that we can be with the ability that we have.” Coach Henning explained “We want to be excellent in all facets of it, from a training perspective, from just our daily disciplines, with lifestyle, to the way we compete we just want to strive for excellence even in the littlest of things.”
The next cross country meet will be Sep 27th at the UC Riverside Invitational on the UCR Ag Ops Course.
