FULLERTON, Calif. --- Biola Cross Country took a small group of runners down the 57 to CSU Fullerton for Friday night's Titan Invite for what was the final regular season meet of the season.
 
Head Coach Sean Henning sent just three men's runners to the meet on the campus of the Titans. Eric Marlette was the men's top finisher as he completed the 8k in 27:19. He placed 79^th overall in the 142-man field. All three Biola runners came up inside of the top 100.
 
Nic Nelson (87^th – 27:35) and Timmy Seeberger (94^th – 27:50) also competed.
 
"Eric Marlette had a nice personal best today and had a solid day, racing conservative and moving up throughout the race," said Henning. "Nic is still learning a lot about how to best run an 8K but shows a lot of heart and grit at the end of his races. Tim was very patient and moved up a lot throughout the race. We will get back to training and continue to prepare ourselves over the next couple weeks for conference and nationals."
 
A full team of women's runners competed in the 5k event that featured familiar foes in The Master's, Vanguard and San Diego Christian. The Eagles finished second among that group of GSAC teams and third in the overall finishing order.
 
Henning left behind a lot of the runners who traditionally make up his top-7 to get them a little extra rest heading into the Golden State Athletic Conference championship meet in a few weeks.
 
Kelly Thomas was the team's leading runner. The sophomore placed 21^st overall and completed the course in 18:56. She was the 15^th non-unattached runner to cross the finish line.
 
Following Thomas in the Eagles' top-5 was Taylor Lawsen (18^th – 19:11), Stephanie Chaires (20^th – 19:23), Hannah Jossi (23^rd – 19:37) and Melissa Ledesma (25^th – 19:46).
 
"We held out our top-8 and allowed some other girls to step up and lead the team today," said Henning. "I thought the highlight of the day was Hannah Jossi. In her second cross country race of the season after dealing with a couple of years of injury, she ran a personal best by 44 seconds!"
 
Kathryn Doherty, Kaili Waller and Jessica Yee also ran in what was the Eagles' only night race of the 2016 season.
 
The next time Cross Country will lace them up is November 5. The Eagles will be up in Rocklin competing at the GSAC Championships hosted by William Jessup.