SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- Both of Biola's cross country teams traveled to San Diego on Saturday to compete in the Aztec Invitational hosted by National Collegiate Athletic Association member San Diego State.
 
This is an event that Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman generally only brings the women's squad to, but he mixed it up this season and brought the men along as well, and it is a good thing he did.
 
Danny Ledesma paced the Eagles and finished first in the 39-man race, he completed the 8K track in 27 minutes and seven seconds. He finished just one second ahead of three of his teammates, Brandon Berz, Andrew Daedler and Kevin Horchler, who finished second through fourth. Shane Brinson was the fifth finisher for BU, placing 11^th (28:34).
 
The men's squad walked away with a first place finish, finishing 15 points ahead of Cuyamaca College.

"It was a good rebound for the men," said Zimmerman. "They showed a lot of character rebounding from last week's rough outing. Hats off to them as they very much stepped up to the challenge today."
 
The women had a bit of a bigger challenge facing them as they ran against 10 other programs, six of them coming from the NCAA.
 
The University of Arkansas swept the women's race, placing all eight of its runners in the top 8. Arkansas is currently ranked No. 10 in the NCAA.
 
The Eagles finished just behind the Razorbacks, placing four runners in the top 15 and five in the top 20 to end with 64 points.

"The women looked really smooth as they accomplished all the goals we set out for today," said Zimmerman.
 
Kellian Hunt led the way for the Eagles with a 10^th place finish, running an 18:21. All of Biola's top four finishers ended within 30 seconds of one another as Carrie Soholt, Chelsea Janzen and Lyndee Dawson finished under 18:51. Anika Gasner ran 19:15 to finish in 19^th overall and round out the counting times for the Eagles.
 
Biola's runners did well to navigate a challenging course at Balboa Park that switches between grass, dirt and concrete constantly. The women's side dropped over two minutes from their combined team time from a year ago.

"Across the board all of our runners raced well today," said Zimmerman.
 
Both teams will take three weeks off until they next compete. The women's squad will travel to Vanguard for the annual Vanguard invitational and the men will go to Lawrence, Kan. to compete in the NAIA pre-national race. Both races take place on Oct. 12.

Video of the men's race can be seen here.