SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- Biola wrapped up its most successful GSAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships of the last decade, finishing fourth in the women's competition and seventh on the men's side as the events concluded at the new Westmont Track on Saturday night.

The Eagle women scored 123 points in the meet to finish in the fourth, nearly doubling the point total of fifth-place Westmont. On the men's side, Biola scored 58 points to finish seventh overall, one-half point behind sixth-place Concordia and just 19 points behind fourth-place Westmont. Both point totals were the most scored by Biola in the GSAC Championships over the last 10 years. Biol managed to score in every event except one on the women's side and three on the men's side.

Junior Natasha Miller added to Biola's individual titles with two on Saturday. Miller defended her title in the high jump with a leap of 5-feet, 6-inches. She has now won the high jump title in each of the three seasons she has competed. Miller also added a first-place finish in the 100m hurdles, recording a personal best time of 14.19, lowering her NAIA Automatic Qualifying time.

Miller also had a pair of top-three finishes in sprint events, finish as the runner-up in the 400m with a personal-best and automatic qualifying time of 56.93. She also placed third in the 200m with a time of 25.24.

Brooke Forsi placed fourth in the 400m, recording a personal best time of 58.05, just .05 seconds off a provincial qualifying time.

Kelsey Gasner, who won the 3000m steeplechase on Friday, came back and scored points for the Eagles in a pair of events on Saturday. Gasner took third place overall in the 800m run with a 2:18.34, then placed sixth in the 1,500m with an automatic qualifying time of 4:40.31. Katie Thede finished in fifth place in the 1,500m, just ahead of Gasner with a 4:38.93.

Biola had three score in the 5,000m run as Sarah Brooks, Jane Kerner and Thede placed fifth through seventh in the race, respectively. Brooks bettered her "A" standard time with a personal-best mark of 17:55.61. Kerner crossed in 18:07.31 and Thede finished in 18:09.73

Rounding out the point-scorers in the track events was Connie Andersen, who took eighth place with a personal-best time of 68.19.

Andersen had a busy day, also competing to a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon, scoring 3,849 points to earn an automatic spot at the NAIA Championships. During the competition, she won the javelin with a personal-best throw of 117-0.

In other field events, the Eagle women received points from Naomi Sornoso, who placed sixth in the discus (118-08) and seventh in the shut put (33-9.25).

On the men's side, sprinter Gabe Aeschliman placed in the top eight in two events. He finished fourth in the 200m (22.96) and took seventh in the 400m (50.47). He was joined by two strong middle-distance finishes from Mark Weller, who took sixth in the 800m run (1:58.31), and Kirk Carlson, who was eighth in the 1,500m with a PR time of 4:03.45.

Two Biola distance runners dropped considerable time in the 5,000m. Kyle McNulty placed fifth with a personal-best time of 15:12.19, lopping over 30 seconds off his previous best. Spencer Lyle finished 11th overall in 15:30.66, dropping over 50 seconds.

In the field events, Juan Flores finished fifth in the shut put with a toss of 46-feet, bettering his previous best throw by 1/2 meter. Ryan Hanson also picked up a point for Biola with an eighth-place finish in the high jump (5-11.25).

Both teams vastly improved on their performances from last year as the women scored 103.5 points last year while the men tallied 36.

Biola will have a pair of last-chance meets to see if they can qualify any more athletes for the 2010 NAIA National Championships in May.

Biola has already qualified a number of athletes for the championships. They are:

Men:
Marathon: Ryan Richert, Mike Morin, Carter Williams, Spencer Lyle, Evan Thibodeau, Kyle McNulty
10,000: Ryan Richert
3,000 Steeplechase: Kyle McNulty
Javelin: Ryan Hanson
Pole Vault: Alex Calkins

Women:
Natasha Miller: Heptathlon, 100 Hurdles, High Jump, Long Jump, 200, 400
Sarah Brooks: 5,000 & 10,000
Jane Kerner: 5,000 & 10,000, 4 x 800 Relay
Kelsey Gasner: 800, 1500, 3,000 Steeplechase, 4 x 800 Relay
Nychele Fischetti: 1500, 3,000 Steeplechase, 4 x 800 Relay
Katie Thede: 1500, 4 x 800 Relay
Brooke Forsi: 4 x 800 Relay