RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- The Biola Cross Country season kept on rolling on Saturday morning as the Eagles competed in an event that saw over 800 runners come out from all across the country to run at UC Riverside.

The women's program finished second in its field of 20 teams in the open 5k. The Eagles finished behind only the Arkansas Razorbacks in the women's race. The men finished 16^th of 29 programs in their standard 8k, which featured well over 300 runners.

"I was really happy with how the men performed today. It was a massive race and I asked the guys to get out more aggressively than normal. They did a good job of positioning themselves for the most part, and we had a really strong middle of the race," said Head Coach Sean Henning. "The women did a great job of executing the game plan today. We entered the open 5K race to focus on running in a more nationals-like scenario where they could work on getting out aggressively and establishing good position within the first 400 meters."

The women were once again led by NAIA Runner of the Week, Lyndee Dawson. The senior finished with a time of 17:41 to place fifth overall. She was one of three Eagles inside of the top-10 as Emily Ransom (9^th – 17:53) and Hannah Hunsaker (10^th – 17:55) came across the finish line just behind her.

Just 48 seconds separated Dawson from the Eagles' fifth runner, Michelle Clark, who finished her first race of the 2016 season with a 18:29 to place 30^th overall. Just one minute and nine seconds fell between Biola's first and seventh finishers to illustrate the depth of Henning's squad.

"Emily and Hannah did a great job of getting in the mix up front early, and Mandy and Kaitlin had really strong last miles to place in our top-7," said Henning. "Also, Kelly Thomas had the best race of her collegiate cross country career and I was very excited to see that."
 
Thomas finished 55^th overall with a 19:04.

For the second week in a row Ryan Thompson led the effort for the men's side. The sophomore completed the crowded 8k course in 25:23 to place 39^th overall. Freshmen Miles Brubacher and Gabe Plendcio were not too far behind him with 44^th-place and 48^th-place finishes and times of 25:27 and 25:31, respectively.

The men's times were a bit more spread out, which is to be expected with as large of packs of runners as there were out on the hot and sunny hilly course.

Biola's fourth and fifth men were Timmy Wilson (98th - 26:12) and Robbie Gleeson (128th - 26:33)

The field on both sides was dominated by primarily NCAA Division I programs, with Biola, The Master's Vanguard, William Jessup and Marymount serving as the only NAIA schools in the meet.

"We still need to work on moving our back end up a bit, which we are capable of, but this was definitely a step on the right direction," said Henning. "The men lost to No. 6 ranked The Master's University by just one point, so we felt good about competing well with them."

Biola Cross Country is back in action on Oct. 1 at the Charles Bowles Invitational hosted by Willamette University.