LAWRENCE, Kansas --- It was about 20 degrees cooler and a little blistery, but the conditions were a perfect fit for Biola's women's cross country team as they competed in their seventh consecutive National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championship.
 
The No. 3 Eagles lived up to their ranking and placed third in the national meet with a total score of 174. No. 1 British Columbia took the crown for the second straight year, and No. 2 College of Idaho saw two of their runners land in the top 10 to earn a second place finish.

"We had a full team effort again today," said Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman. "I was very pleased and prod of the whole team. They really believed in the training process and our philosophy. They faced very challenging weather conditions and a tough course, and they blocked that out."

Carrie Soholt and Kellian Hunt both finished in the top 30 of the 319-runner field, to earn NAIA All-American status. Hunt finished in 24^th (18:22.90) to pick up her second All-American nod, and Soholt paced Biola with a 14^th place run (18:18.32).
 
BU moved up seven spots from its 10^th place finish at last year's national meet in Vancouver, Wash. Having their top five runners all finish in the top 100 for the second straight season helped the Eagles finish 15 points ahead of Lewis-Clark State, the fourth place team. The Master's (14^th) and Westmont (18^th) were the only other Golden State Athletic Conference schools to compete in the women's championship.
 
Soholt and Hunt led the way for BU, their other counting times came from Chelsea Janzen (18:50.19), Anika Gasner (18:51.63) and Sarah Pfaff (19:12.91). Just 52 seconds separated the five BU scorers, nearly half the amount of time that separated the five counters last season.

"They just took care of each other and took care of business. We were granite today," said Zimmerman.
 
Danny Ledesma made the trip to Kansas as the lone representative from the men's team. He ran 26:00.40 to finish 108^th overall. This is Ledesma's third year running in the national meet, and he has improved his finish each time, placing 137^th the first year, 114^th last year and now up to 108^th.

"It was a super time for Danny, and he just had an outstanding senior campaign," said Zimmerman. "He is a super quality guy who represents well all the time."
 
The men's team from Oklahoma City won their first NAIA cross country championship with 77 points. It was their first season competing for the NAIA title.