REDLANDS, Calif. --- Biola's women's cross country team continued its dominance of the Redlands Invitational as
Rachel Stump led an Eagle sweep of the top six places in the first race of the season on Saturday morning in Redlands.
The Eagles, ranked No. 7 in the NAIA Preseason Coaches Poll, were impressive today with seven of their top 11 athletes begin freshman. Stump, a senior, took top overall honors, completing the 4.5k race in under 17:00 at 16:55. The time was a 39 second improvement over her time in the race last year.
Freshman Kellian Hunt placed second in 17:00 with junior Chelsea Janzen finishing third with a 32-second course personal record time of 17:12. Freshman Ilima Kung placed fourth in 17:17 with junior Kasey Schalich finishing just being with a 17:18--nearly a minute better than her previous time on the course.
Freshman Neysa Mains finished sixth in 17:20 followed by senior Carly Tillery in 11th in 17:50 (1:58 better than last season's time). Four freshman rounded out the Biola contingent with Anika Gasner placing 14th overall (17:59), Brooke Arvidson taking 17th (18:05), Alisa Murray placing 25th (18:34) and Megan Callender finishing 33rd (19:03).
"It went well today as everyone showed good focus and attention to detail," said Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman. "We've been pretty ugly at times recently with the heat, adjusting to classes and trying to establish and learn new routines, so it was nice that things went pretty well today. I thought the freshman did pretty well for their first collegiate race and the upperclassmen have really impressed with their mentoring of the large freshman class."
On the men's side, Danny Ledesma was Biola's top finisher, taking home fifth place in the 6K race in 19:03--nearly 51 seconds faster than his best time on the course. Collin Christensen ran 19:15 for 11th place, cutting 22 seconds off his previous best time.
Stump and the Eagles' women's team will compete again in two weeks at the San Diego State Aztec Invitational which features a number of NCAA Division I programs. Biola's women's team will be looking to defend its team title from the 2011 race. The race begins at 8:00 am at Balboa Park in San Diego.
