SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- For the third time in the last four years Biola Women's Track & Field takes the ultra-competitive title as champions in the Golden State Athletic Conference. The Eagles edged out the hosting Westmont Warriors by 1.5 points to claim the third conference crown in program history.
 
Biola's men's team earned a fourth-place finish to slide up one slot from last season's fifth-place mark. The women tallied 286 total points to secure Biola's fifth GSAC Championship of the 2015-16 academic year. The men managed 84 points and had one individual GSAC Champion.
 
"The girls performed very well all the way down to the end. The coaches were very proud of how they carried themselves and how they fought in every event for every point we got. We literally needed every point out of every single person to pull out the win," said Head Coach Sean Henning.
 
It was a well-rounded effort that earned the women the conference championship as the team got champions and all-conference honors in distance, middle distance, jumps, throws and relays as it went all out for every last point it needed.
 
The biggest push came in the distance events as Biola garnered 119 of its points from events that were 800m or more in length. The 1,500m and 5,000m were especially notable as Biola had five scoring runners in the first and four scoring runners in the second as it filled up the scoreboard.
 
"The second day was full of so many great things and pleasant surprises. As a coach, it was so much fun to see people battle through adversity and deal with complete fatigue to help the team accomplish its goal. We had a lot of selfless student-athletes sacrifice individual success for team success," said Henning.
 
Anika Gasner was the champion in the 1,500m as she and Kellian Hunt led the pack from start to finish in a race dominated by red Biola singlets. Gasner finished with a 4:28.56 and Hunt was just behind her a 4:29.31. The Eagles managed to sweep the podium of this one and claim all of the all-conference honors as Lyndee Dawson finished third.
 
Dawson had another fine meet as, in addition to her all-conference run in the 1,500m, she claimed a GSAC Championship in the 3,000m steeplechase with a 10:54. Gasner also had another all-conference individual performance in her.
 
She and Megan Crumley were the only individuals with multiple championships as she also won the 800m outright. Gasner shaved seven seconds from her prelim time to run away with a first place finish after completing the race in 2:13.90. Hunt placed third to earn all-conference honors in the 800m as well.
 
Crumley locked down one championship on day one and added another on the final day as she finished her season with the javelin crown and discus crown. She had two meters on the competition in the javelin as she recorded a 37.71m mark. Then, she earned an even larger victory in the discus by tossing it 38.39m.
 
Ambernicole Hollinger was another standout performer in throws for the Eagles. She wrapped up the championship in the hammer throw on Friday with a mark of 40.20m, which was a win by just about a half a meter. She also finished in the top-3 in the shot put on Thursday. She finished second to the thrower from Vanguard whom she beat in the hammer. Her mark was 11.35m.
 
Nicole Falkenstein was her usual self in the pole vault. She wrapped up her third consecutive GSAC Championship by clearing 3.66m. Her closest competition from Westmont cleared 3.34m.
 
Teddi Wright and Elyse Harabedian brought it home for Biola when it came down to the jumps. Wright earned a conference championship in the triple jump (11.36m), while Harabedian earned All-GSAC by finishing third in the same event (10.38m).
 
Harabedian had a busy, busy weekend as she also earned all-conference honors in the high jump, with a second-place finish (1.60m), and the women's heptathlon. She completed all the events to accumulate 4,118 points in the heptathlon and finish second overall.
 
Harabedian competed in 11 different events over the course of the two days and was individually responsible for 21 of the Eagles' 286 points.

Emily Heisinger was another standout for Henning's squad. She competed in some of the shorter events and managed two all-conference finishes. Her runs in the 200m (26.18) and 400m (59.60) were good enough for third.
 
Finally, Stephanie Croy also earned multiple All-GSAC honors. She led the way for Biola's extremely strong effort in the 5,000m and placed second with a time of 17:55.05. She was five seconds back from a championship but 10 seconds ahead of her closest competition. She also finished in All-GSAC range in the 3,000m steeplechase as she finished in third with an 11:17 in Dawson's championship race.
 
Both the men and women put forth standout performances in the relays. The women won the 4x800m relay and finished third in the 4x400m. The guys placed second in the 4x800m (just two seconds back) and third in the 4x400m. These finishes helped Brian Marcus, Christian Yaotani, Wes Noyes, Aditya Lal, McKenna Boen, Alisa Murray, Hannah Hunsaker, Gasner, Brandon Berz, Andrew Daedler and Hunt all earn all-conference recognition.
 
"We set this as our goal at the beginning of the year and everyone was completely on board," said Henning. "This was an absolute team effort and I would like to thank my entire coaching staff for doing such a great job so far this season. All five of them played a huge role in our success last couple of days. Their hard work and commitment to our student-athletes has been such a blessing to the program."
 
The men improved greatly on their fifth-place finish from last season. The 84 points garnered was also an improvement from last year's numbers.
 
Andrew Daedler, who spent his fall as a coach for the cross country team before starting grad school so he could come back to run again, won the men's only individual championship. He gutted out a 3:54.52 in the 1,500m to finish just under a second faster than a runner from The Master's College.
 
"It was great to watch him finish his career in the conference with a win," said Henning.
 
He was one of three males to earn individual all-conference honors in events outside of relays. Joining him in that distinction was Noyes, who placed second in the 800m (1:56.01) and Andy Cecil, who took third in the shot put (12.55m) by one-hundredth of a meter.
 
In addition to the all-conference performances Henning saw standout performances by Marcus and Yaotani in the sprint events. Yaotani impressed everyone in the long jump as well by moving up from not even being ranked in the top-9 to earn a fourth-place finish.
 
"The guys will continue to get better is our program grows," said Henning. "I am confident that it will only go up from here. All in all, both of our teams did a great job representing their families, University, and most importantly Christ in their performances over the last couple of days."