SAN DIEGO --- Six “Marathon Men” from the Biola track team headed south on Sunday to compete in the Silver Strand Half Marathon in San Diego and all six left with qualifying times for the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Nationals in the marathon.

Senior Ryan Richert paced Biola's sextet with a time of 1:13:02, placing second overall out of over 2,600 participants. Fellow senior Kyle McNulty was not that far behind in 1:13:22 for third place overall with junior Carter Williams finishing in 1:13.42 for fifth place. All three finished below the NAIA automatic qualifying time of 1:14 for the half-marathon, which qualifies them for the marathon at the NAIA Outfield Track and Field Championships in June.

In addition, freshman Spencer Lyle crossed in 1:14:06 to place seventh followed by senior Mike Morin in eighth (1:14:30) and junior Evan Thibodeau in ninth (1:14:40). All three met the provisional “B” standard of 1:16:40 and are likely to earn a trip to the Championships as well.

The men ran steady as a front pack through ten miles and then just went for it through the final 5 kilometers as they all placed in the top ten of a tough race.

“Their cross country mileage certainly paid off,” said Biola Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman. “This is huge for our program. They really used their heads and hearts well today and have earned a good break in training now."

"We knew this would be mentally challenging as this race was just eight days after the GSAC Cross Country Championships," said Zimmerman. "My hat is off as well to Assistant Coach Matt Owen who did a superb job of mentoring these guys.”

For the third year in a row the track team has had multiple marathon qualifiers as Danielle Simpson, Ryan Richert, and Jared Bird qualified in 2008 and Richert qualified again in 2009 along with Kristin Schmidt.

The NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships will be held on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University May 27-29, 2010. The full 26.2-mile marathon will be on Saturday morning, May 29th.

Half-Marathon Results can be found at: http://www.y-events.com/09silverhalf.htm