FULLERTON, Calif. --- Biola Cross Country got its 2016 season off to a fantastic start by hosting the first annual Biola Invitational at Ted Craig Regional Park in Fullerton. Both of the Eagles' teams finished inside of the top-3 at the meet as both teams place third in their respective races.
 
The men's 8k was run first as the 11 competing teams broke in the course with a few early-morning laps around the lake on a course that was made up of predominantly grass and dirt.
 
Biola had two runners inside of the top-10 through a majority of the race as Ryan Thompson and Miles Brubacher paced the group of eight BU runners through the first 6-7km of the race. Ultimately, Thompson would finish ninth overall (24:51), Gabe Plendcio 12^th (24:58) and Brubacher 13^th (24:59).
 
"I thought the men ran really well," said Head Coach Sean Henning. "For the most part we did a good job of staying patient the first couple of loops and then finishing strong the last couple loops."
 
The Eagles finished with 88 points total, which was good for a top-3 finish. It was the best total of any Golden State Athletic Conference team in the field. BU finished three points ahead of Westmont. The Eagles finished a little more than 20 points behind future PacWest foe California Baptist, which finished second in the race.
 
Rounding out the Eagles' top-7 runners was Christian Perez (36^th – 25:41), Jonathan O'Neil (41^st – 25:58), Timmy Wilson (54^th – 26:27) and Nic Nelson (64^th – 26:54).
 
Two of the Eagles' top three runners, and three of the top seven, were new to the team this year.
 
"We were missing a couple of guys that we chose to hold out today, but aside from that I thought this was a really nice start to the season," said Henning. "Ryan Thompson and Miles Brubacher did a great job leading the charge for us for most of the race, and Gabe Plendcio had a fantastic first college race."
 
The women's team finished with another strong showing, despite missing one of their top runners, Michelle Clark, for the first race of the season. The suspected bunch of top runners went 1, 2, 3 for BU as Lyndee Dawson placed fourth overall (17:06), Hannah Hunsaker went all-out to finish ninth (17:18) and Emily Ransom found her way across the finish line not long after in 12^th (17:24).
 
The Eagles were also the top GSAC team in the women's final results as they finished third overall and ahead of Westmont (sixth), Arizona Christian (ninth) and San Diego Christian (15^th).
 
Biola was competing well with some more future PacWest rivals in this women's race. California Baptist won the race (43 points), with Point Loma (59 points) in second and Biola (62 points) third.
 
"The women did a really good job of staying patient in the beginning of the race and then closing well," said Henning. "Lyndee Dawson did a great job of mixing it up with the leaders, and Hannah Hunsaker and Emily Ransom ran very strong together."
 
Following Dawson, Hunsaker and Ransom to round out the Eagles' top-7 was: Stephanie Croy (18^th – 17:51), Mandy Reyes (19^th – 17:51), Kaitlin Quaid (30^th – 18:08) and Alisa Murray (33^rd – 18:13).
 
Henning sent 15 runners into the field for the women's race. Of those 15, 14 finished inside of the top-85 in the 186-woman field.
 
"We had a lot of girls have very strong days and I think we will continue to get stronger and more confident in what we can do as we race more and continue to put in solid weeks of training," said Henning. 
 
This was Biola's lone home event of the 2016 season. The Eagles are back at it next Saturday in the UC Riverside Invitational.