SANTA CLARITA, Calif. --- Expectations are always high as Biola competes in the Golden State Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships, and today was no different. The Eagles battled through high temperatures and a bunched-up field to finish in third place on the women's side and sixth on the men's side.
 
Kevin Horchler was again the standout performer as he paced his performance perfectly to earn his first career individual GSAC Championship. He led the men's field of 69 runners with a 26:08. 52.
 
His first-place finish also gives him the second All-GSAC honor of his career. He improved upon his 2013 finish by 11 spots.
 
"He [Kevin] ran a really smart race and I was really proud of him," said Head Coach Jonathan Zimmerman. "We've been working on patience in his racing and it was fun to watch him today. No one was close at the end."
 
This patience was the key to Horchler's victory as he was able to conserve energy to make a late burst and outlast the competition. Horchler ran the whole race in the lead group, which dwindled from a group of 10 at the start of the race down to four at a large uphill chunk. Eventually it became just Horchler and Josh Espinoza of Vanguard through a late downhill section.
 
Horchler turned it up during the downhill to cruise to the win. Biola logged 122 points to finish 85 points off the pace set by the conference champion, and home team, The Master's College.
 
The Eagles had three All-GSAC performers on the women's side, Anika Gasner, Carrie Soholt and Kellian Hunt. The trio now has seven All-GSAC finishes shared between them.
 
Gasner pace Biola's efforts with a 10^th-place time of 18:49. Next was Soholt and Hunt, who finished 13^th and 14^th overall to round out the All-GSAC runners. They finished with a 19:02 and 19:06, respectively.
 
The rest of Biola's top-five consisted of Stephanie Croy and Ilima Kung who each had breakout performances. They finished 18^th and 23^rd overall and were among the last few runners to finish under 20 minutes in a very draining 5,000m run.
 
The Eagles finished in third place, finishing behind the champion, Westmont, and the runner-up, The Master's College. Westmont won the event with 41 points to barely edge TMC's 54 and Biola's 78.
 
"We ran pretty well, but the two teams that beat us were really good," said Zimmerman. "All the kids competed well for sure. Now we just need to earn an at-large bid to qualify for nationals."
 
The Eagles find out their nationals consideration when the final NAIA top-25 Coaches' Poll is released tomorrow, Nov. 9.

The GSAC also announced its annual Scholar-Athlete winners this week. Biola's women's team raked in the academic honors, leading the conference with six honorees. Brooke Arvidson, Kathleen Bell, Megan Callender, Anika Gasner, Ilima Kung and Carrie Soholt each met the minimum academic requirements for the reward with cumulative GPAs higher than 3.5 and an academic standing of junior or senior.