The Biola men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Westmont Invitational Saturday, Sept. 15, in Santa Barbara. The women’s team came away with top honors after winning the invitational, while the men placed a solid third.

Sophomore Kristin Schmidt won the women’s 5k event, running an impressive 18:59, winning the race by seven seconds, while Senior Brian Ball won the men’s 8k in 26:01, a solid 22 seconds ahead of the competition.

The women’s team, which is ranked 8th in the latest NAIA national poll, had all ten of their runners finish in the top half of the pack. With 79 total runners competing, all the lady Eagles finished 26th or better.

Freshman Katie Thede finished fifth overall, coming in at 19:33. She was followed closely by three others — senior Amanda Stephens in eighth place at 20:06, freshman Kelsey Gasner in ninth at 20:12 and freshman Sarah Brooks in tenth at 20:19.

Rounding out the squad’s impressive performance was Erica Perez, who finished 14th at 20:42, Kim Arroues who came in 18th at 20:58, Connie Andersen who placed 21st at 21:08, Danielle Simpson who crossed 25th at 21:28 and Danielle Gomes who finished in 21:44 for a solid 26th place.

This is the Biola women’s second straight victory, following their impressive win at the UC Irvine Invitational on Sept. 8.

Brian Ball’s first place performance for the men at 26:01 was an impressive run on a difficult course, but the rest of Biola men ran quality races as well.

Sophomore Ryan Richert came in eighth place with a time of 27:25, while freshman David Kostelyk took 13th at 28:08. Junior Jared Bird and freshman Kyle McNulty finished out the scoring for the Eagles in 20th and 21st place.

For the men, the 11th ranked Westmont team won their host meet with all five of their scoring runners placing in the top 10. Fresno Pacific took second place, boasting three top 10 finishers.

The men and women will not compete again until next month’s Vangaurd Invitational in Costa Mesa on Oct.6. They will then have their eyes set on the GSAC Championships on Saturday, Oct. 20, also in Costa Mesa.