COMPLETE RESULTS (PDF): WOMEN | MEN
LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Conditions were warm and dry and a number of nationally ranked squads and almost all the GSAC schools were present at the Biola University Invitational on Saturday at Irvine Regional Park for what was considered by many to be a “pre-conference championship."
No. 5-ranked Concordia University took top honors on the women's side, sweeping the top three spots and finishing with just 27 team points. No. 6 Biola took second despite missing its top runner to a family engagement. The Eagles placed their top three runners in the top 10 and finished with 60 points. No. 20 Westmont was a close third with 87 points followed by Point Loma Nazarene with 105 and Vanguard with 117 points.
Individually, Violet Mokaya finished first overall in 17:49.0 followed by teammates Rocio Pelayo and Aybuke Kizilarslan with times of 17:55.7 and 18:04.1 respectively.
On the men's side, No. 20 Vanguard pulled of a slight upset, recording 50 points to just edge out No. 14 Fresno Pacific, which finished with 54. No. 18 Concordia was not too far behind with 72 points followed by Westmont with 88. Point Loma took home fifth place with 108 points, barely beating out host Biola, which had 112 points overall.
Vanguard's Fitsum Tesfa took home top individual honors with a time of 24:50.1. Point Loma's Landon Bright finished second overall, crossing the line in 25:08.8 while The Master's Jeffrey Jackson finished third in 25:37.3.
Overall, the Biola women ran very well as Nychele Fischetti (5th – 18:28), Katie Thede (6th – 18:33), and Carissa Bowman (10th – 18:38) finished in the top 10. Rounding out Biola squad were Kelsey Gasner (18th – 19:16), Sarah Brooks (23rd – 19:31), Kim Arroues (26th – 19:41), Danielle Gomes (31st – 20:02), Katie Sikkelee (49th – 21:01), and Clarissa Kenney (70th – 22:25).
The Eagles' men's squad continued to close the gap between themselves and a number of GSAC opponents with their strong performance on Saturday. Individually David Ricksecker had a very fine race, finishing in eighth place with a time of 26:12.
Also competing for the men's squad were Robbie Cracknell (20th – 27:17), Jared Bird (24th – 27:37), Evan Thibodeau (36th – 28:20), Kyle McNulty (38th – 28:22), Mike Morin (39th – 28:26), Rob Clarkson (50th – 30:02), Ryan Houghton (51st – 30:09), and Matt Arroues (53rd – 30:25).
“I consider this to be a real breakthrough race for David and I am looking for the men's team to really put things together for the GSAC Championships in two weeks” said Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman.
Biola's cross country teams race next at the GSAC Championships on Saturday, November 8th at Woodward Park in Fresno. The women's race begins at 9 a.m. with the men starting at 10 a.m.
