SAN DIEGO --- Nychele Fischetti placed third overall and Biola put seven runners in the 16 to beat out a mostly NCAA Division I field and win the San Diego State University Aztec Invitational on Saturday morning at Balboa Park.

The Biola women's team, ranked No. 3 in the latest NAIA National Coaches Poll, scored a total of 44 points to win the event, beating out UCLA, USC, UNLV and San Diego State. 

Fischetti was Biola's highest finisher, placing third overall with a time of 18:36.4, just 15 seconds behind the winner of the event from SDSU. Jessica Marquardt placed sixth in the field in 18:55.6 and Carissa Bowman finished 10th with a time of 19:07.3.

Bowman was the first of four Eagles to finish in a bunch with Alexandra Sciarra placing 11th (19:11.3), Rachel Stump finishing 13th (19:14.1), Jane Kerner in 14th (19:17.2) and Chelsea Janzen placing 16th (19:21.2.).

Rounding out the Biola contingent was Carrisa Soholt (25th - 19:38.2), Kasey Schliach (29th - 19:51.6), Carly Tillery (50th - 21:02.0) and Clarissa Kenney (55th - 21:17.7).

"It was a good, competitive effort by the team," said Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman. "They showed great focus throughout the last half of the race to keep our 1-5 and 1-8 time gaps so close. It was a challenging, physically demanding course and the whole group raced it well."

The men's team had the week off after racing at UC Irvine last week. The two teams get back together and travel to Oregon on Saturday, October 1, for the Willamette University Invitational.