COSTA MESA, Calif. --- Senior Brittany Gomes placed second overall and Biola's women's cross country team placed four runners in the top 20 to finish third out of seven teams at the Vanguard Invitational at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa on Saturday.

Gomes, who won her last race at the Redlands Invite two weeks ago, finished the 5K course in 18:34, just over 40 seconds behind the winner, Grace Jepngetich of Vanguard.

In addition to Gomes, juniors Anna Thibodo and Kristin Schmidt placed 13th and 14th respectively to pace Biola. Thibodo finished in 20:00 with Schmidt crossing the line at 20:06.

Also finishing in the top 20 was junior Amanda Stephens who placed 18th with a time of 20:15.

The quartet helped Biola to a third place finish overall with 68 points just behind a pair of highly ranked teams. No. 9-ranked Point Loma Nazarene finished first overall with 58 points followed by No. 15 Cal State San Marcos with 60.

Rounding out the Eagles' squad were juniors Danielle Simpson who finished in 20:46 (29th place), Sara Bair in 21:08 (35th) and Hillary Tayet in 22:23 (47th).

On the men's side, Biola had just three individuals run the 8K men's race. Sophomore Ronnie Toth finished 32nd overall with a time of 28:26.

The other two runners for the Eagles were freshman Mike Morin, who ran a 31:01 (48th place) and sophomore Robert Stevenson, who placed 62nd in 41:05.

Biola takes a few weeks off before traveling to Fresno Pacific for the 2006 Golden State Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday, October 21st. The women's race begins at 3:00 p.m. followed by the men's race.