ORANGE, Calif. --- There may be no technical home field advantage in cross country, but both Biola sides sure made it feel like there was at today's NAIA West Coast Jamboree.
 
The Eagles hosted the premier event for National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics west coast programs on Saturday at Irvine Regional Park. Sixteen women's contingents and 14 men's squads descended upon the park, including seven nationally ranked programs.
 
The Eagles took the women's race in style, earning 32 points to outscore the second place school, The Master's, by nearly 20 points and almost two full minutes. The men's team dug deep and put together three top 16 times, which led them to a third place team finish. The No. 23 Eagles finished ahead of a perennially top-ranked opponent, No. 19 Oregon Tech.
 
"It was good effort and concentration from both sides," said Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman. "It was hard work today for sure."
 
The Eagles third place finish was just over 90 points behind the meet champion CSU San Marcos, a squad that claimed five of the top 11 spots and seven of the top 19.
 
Steven Ing of the Cougars took the top individual spot with a time of 25 minutes and 11.9 seconds. The winner's time was tied for the ninth best time in the history of the event.

Danny Ledesma was the top finisher for the Eagles (25:37.9), placing fourth. He was followed by Andrew Daedler (25:53.9), Kevin Horchler (26:08), Shane Brinson (27:00), Andy Edmondson (27:41) and Mark Diaz (29:39).  
 
"The men's team was awesome today," said Zimmerman. "It was great coming in ahead of Oregon Tech. This is back-to-back outstanding efforts by the men."
 
The No. 4 Biola women's squad ran some great times to win their third race of the season. Kellian Hunt (17:50) and Carrie Soholt (18:02) paced Biola, finishing second and third overall in the dewy morning 5K.
 
Hunt's run was the ninth fastest time in meet history, but she was bested by Karis Frankian of TMC who ran a 17:48.2, the sixth best all-time time.
 
Just like CSU San Marcos did on the men's side, the Eagles took five of the top 11 spots in the race, and their top seven all placed inside the top 22. Chelsea Janzen, Lyndee Dawson, Anika Gasner, Alexandra Sciarra and Sarah Pfaff finished out the top seven for BU.
 
The Eagles will take the next week off to train for the upcoming Golden State Athletic Conference meet Nov. 9. Biola's women will look to clinch their second straight GSAC title, and the men look to improve on their fifth place finish last year.
 
The race takes place at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa, Calif. and is hosted by Vanguard.

Photos of the races can be found here.