FRESNO, Calif. --- Junior Brian Ball placed eighth for the men and senior Brittany Gomes placed 10th overall on the women's side to help pace Biola's cross country teams at the NAIA Region II Championships on Saturday in Fresno.

The women took sixth place in the 13 team field while the men finished ninth.

Both Gomes and Ball, who earned All-Region honors with their top-10 finishes, will race at the NAIA National Championships on Saturday, Nov. 18 in Louisville, Kentucky. Joining them will be Anna Thibodo, who placed 18th overall on the women's side with a time of 18:53.

Gomes ran the 5K course in a time of 18:27, nearly a minute and a half faster than she ran the same course at the GSAC championships two weeks earlier.

Thibodo was Biola's second-best finsiher followed by Kristin Schmidt, who was 25th overall in 19:01 and Amanda Stephens in 31st at 19:28.

Rounding out the group was Sarah Bair in 44th (19:55), Danielle Simpson in 49th (20:01) and Hillary Tayet in 66th (21:21).

"It was a breakthrough day for the women as each we had five lifetime bests and an all-region runner in Gomes," said Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman. "The team certainly brought its best on a day it needed to. That is what champions do and they certainly took the team to another level with the performance today."

Concordia easily cruised to the team title, scoring just 43 points and placing all five runners in the top 17. Biola finished just 15 points behind third-place finisher Vanguard, scoring 128 points.

Ball had a great showing on the men's side after not running much this season due to injury. He traversed the 8K course in 25:16.

Ronnie Toth placed 48th overall for the Eagles in 27:16 and was followed closely by Jared Bird, who took 51st in 27:34.

Kyle McNulty was 60th in 28:31 and Mike Morin was 65th in 29:01.

"You certainly have to be proud of these guys when Brian, Ronnie, Kyle and Mike set PR's and Jared runs his seasonal best," said Zimmerman. "They were great competitors today and put the bar at a new level."

Concordia also took top honors on the men's side with 37 points. Biola's 222 points put the team in a tie with Pt. Loma, though the Sea Lions placed ahead of the Eagles by virtue of a tiebreaker.