SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- The 2017 Golden State Athletic Conference Track & Field Championships got started with a bang on Thursday as the Eagles wrapped up eight individual all-conference honors, two all-conference relay finishes and two individual conference championships.
 
This year's meet is running over the course of two days (Thursday and Friday) up at Westmont College (who's hosted each conference meet since 2013). Biola's women's team is looking to repeat its 2016 championship and win its fourth in the last five years.
 
Lyndee Dawson and Ambernicole Hollinger did their part to put the Eagles on the track towards that goal. Hollinger won the conference title in the discus throw and Dawson won her third GSAC title in the 3,000m steeplechase.
 
Hollinger clincher her crown with a throw of 37.62 meters, which beat the second-place contestant by nearly four meters. It is an improvement of over eight meters on the attempt that earned her sixth place in this event one year ago.
 
Dawson completed the steeplechase in 11:11.91 to lead the pack and lead a contingent of Biola runners that took first, second and third in the event. Stephanie Croy (11:17.14) and Hannah Hunsaker (11:30.61) each earned all-conference in the event. It was Croy's second time earning all-conference in this event. She placed third last year with a time that was just four-hundredth's of a second different than this year's time.
 
The other conference title to go to Biola on a day one filled primarily with prelim competition was the men's 4x800m relay. The Eagles' contingent of Robbie Gleeson, Aditya Lal, Jonathan O'Neil and Nic Nelson ran a 8:00.25 to beat the second-place squad by 25 full seconds.
 
The women's side placed second in the same relay, earning a pack of all-conference honors with a 9:44.61. It was a tight race with Westmont, as the whole meet is expected to be, with the Eagles finishing just two seconds back.
 
Emily Ransom had to work harder than most to earn her first all-conference honors of the meet. The sophomore was one of four Eagles to run the most demanding event of the afternoon, the 10k. She finished second in the conference with a 39:06.95. It was three seconds better than her mark at the Beach Invitational in her first-ever 10k just a few weeks ago.
 
Another hard-working top finish was in the women's pole vault where freshman Sarah Prystupa took home her first conference honors with a second-place finish. She cleared 3.35m to sit behind just a single lady from Westmont who cleared 3.50m.
 
Biola's final All-GSAC honors on the day came to a men's thrower and male distance runner. Gabe Plendcio led a pack of Eagles in the 3,000m steeplechase and came in third with a 9:49.53. Miles Brubacher finished fourth and Brandon Berz sixth in a competitive race. Then, Dylan Fredenburg earned his first all-conference honors in the discus, clearing 41.41m. His previous best finish in the discus was 10^th place back in his freshman season.
 
Outside of its championships and high finishes the Eagles also had a bunch of student-athletes qualify for finals in other events. Those events include: 1,500m, 100m hurdles, men's 400m and 100m dash, women's 100m dash, men and women 800m, women's 400m hurdles and the women's 200m dash.
 
The final day of competition begins with decathlon events at 10:30 a.m. on Friday. Standard field events begin at 11:00 a.m. and track events at 12:30 p.m.
 
Live results can be found at http://www.westmont.edu/ftp/ronsmith/Track/2017/170427/index.htm. Live video is at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/westmont/.