SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- Head Coach Sean Henning and 36 of his 2016 Biola Track & Field student-athletes traveled up to sunny Santa Barbara early Saturday morning to open the new season with a day of competition at Westmont's Sunshine Indoor Open.
 
The Eagles began the season in style with six NAIA national qualifying standards and a bunch of top-three finishes at a meet that runs deep with NAIA and NCAA talent.
 
"All in all, we were happy with the results. Being our first meet, there are the usual kinks we have to work out and everyone has to shake the rust off a little bit," said Henning. "We feel like most everyone is ahead of where they were at last year, and we are hoping to get some more qualifiers in the next two weeks."
 
Biola's pole vaulters had some good success on Saturday, led of course by returning All-American Nicole Falkenstein. She cleared 3.48 meters to finish second overall and get her NAIA A standard out of the way immediately. Dale Hollinger competed for the first time in three years and placed sixth in the men's competition by clearing 3.95 meters.
 
The Eagles' relay teams were also on point, especially the women's DMR. Lyndee Dawson, Emily Heisinger, Alisa Murray and Anika Gasner ran a 12:16 to finish 21 seconds in front of everyone else and hit the A standard.
 
Gasner and Dawson each also earned individual national qualifying times in other events. Dawson and Michelle Clark went 1-2 in the women's 3,000m with Dawson's 10:22 earning her an 'A' standard and Clark earning 'B' status just five seconds behind. Stephanie Croy also hit a 'B' standard in that same race.
 
Gasner finished second in the 1,000m with an insanely fast 2:53, which would've been the top time in the NAIA if not for the runner for Marymount that finished just ahead of her.
 
Elyse Harabedian and Alisa Murray each finished just shy of their own NAIA qualifying standards in the high jump and 800m, respectively.
 
On the men's side the distance medley relay missed the national qualifying standard by about 10 seconds. Ryan Thompson, Aditya Lal, Wes Noyes and Andrew Daedler finished fifth overall with a 10:32 and will attempt qualification again in a week.
 
Lal and Noyes also had to deal with the frustration of narrowly missing in their own individual events as well. Lal was 1.3 seconds over the mark in the 600m and Noyes was three seconds late in the 1,000m. They both finished inside of the top-4 in their respective races.
 
Being an open meet, the competition was not scored for team points and was meant as a forum for the individuals to get some competition under their belts to begin the new season. Henning's crew did just that and will look for continued growth when its schedule resumes Feb. 13 at the SOKA Indoor Invite.